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ROB ROY ON THE BALTIC: 



THROUGH 

NORWAY, SWEDEN, DENMARK, SLESWIG HOLSTE1N, 
THE NORTH SEA, AND THE BALTIC. 



J. JM 



J.i MACGEEGOE, M.A., 

TRINITY COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE, 

AUTHOR OF " A THOUSAND MILES IN THE ROB ROY CANOE," EIGHTH EDITION ; 

"THE ROB ROY ON THE JORDAN," ETC 



With numerous Illustrations, Maps, and Music, 



THIRD EDITION. 



BOSTON: 

EOBEETS BEOTHEES. 



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'»"«£>- 



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PREFACE. 



Quite new things will meet us in this cruise, and 
different from those we told of in the former 
voyage. 

Then we had the rapids to shoot, and shallows 
to wade, and Swiss glaciers and German castles 
and French omelettes to discuss. 

Now we have to dash into salt water, to sail 
over inland seas, to grope amid foggy islands, and 
to fish and to cook under lonely, gaunt rocks. 

Which cruise was the better one it is not easy 
to say. Each of them had its log ; and the chips 
from the one are not like the shavings from the 
other — except in this, that they came from a 
pleasant paddle. 

JOHN MACGBEGOK. 

Temple, London, 1872. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. PAGE 

The New Canoe — Venerable Suit — Victualling — Live- 
stock — Norway — A Watery Land — The Dresine 

— A Thinking . . . . 1 

CHAPTER II. 

Too fast — Catastrophe — Oklangen Lake — Refractory Rice 

— Tracts — Papier Mache — A Thought or Two — 
Old Lady No. 1 — Dark Music — Behind the Scenes 

— Mamma and Daughter — Rapids of the Vrangs . . 10 

CHAPTER III. 

Natives — How do you find the Way? — Which is it? — 
Water-logged — Wood, wood — Dragging — Soft 
Men — Man in the Moon — Sleep-walker 22 

CHAPTER IV. 

Bivouac — Stick to the Boat — Thirty Miles a Day — 
Politeness — Dame Cyclops — Miss Kjerstin — Daz- 
zled — Elga Lake — Pike and Cream — Sluggard 

— A Little Bill 32 

CHAPTER V. 

A Hundred Luncheons — Luxury — Wake Up — Wait for 
Events — John Bull at Home — Vermland — Model 
Wife — Chat in Latin — Manners 44 

CHAPTER VI. 

Caught in a Squall — Lost ! Lost ! Lost ! — Cholera 
Ward — Alone in a Lantern — A Strange Duet — 
On Deck — French Sailors — Yankee — Cockney 

— Cauliflowers 54 



VI CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VII. page 

Ladies' Locks — Tailoring — Canoe Chat — Whispers — 
Motala Strom — London Scottish R.V. — Charming 
Family — Lake Yetter — For England — Monitors — 
Sister Craft — The Gunboat — Morning Call . . . . 65 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Washing Day — Feeding on Tin — Horse Steak — Queer 
College — Choosing Partners — Laborious Wedding 

— That tiresome Wire — Roxen Locks — Murdered 
Tongue — Observation — Solus — Lone Happiness . . 77 

CHAPTER IX. 

Poke the Fire — Flies and Flies — Sport and Play — 
Won t give in —Breakers — Bivouac — Surgeon's Re- 
port — Search for a Town — Norrkoping Falls — Rest 90 

CHAPTER X. 

Right-about-face — Another Revolution — A Radical Tory 

— Boys' Beadle — You shall teach — On the 
Baltic — Maps — Launched — Fog at Sea — Man in 

the Mist — A Night Peril — Stockholm 100 



CHAPTER XL 

The " Times " — The Exhibition — Bears and Bogies 
— Outrigger — Down in a Whale — Beautiful City- 
Lady Canoeists — Town Life 114 

CHAPTER XII. 

Rob Roy in the Press — Ongbots — Lake Malaren — Lake 

Hjelmare — Solemn Speed — The Dannemora Mine 122 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Midnight Music — Catechism — Law and Justice — Mobbed 
on the Rail — Good Dog — A Linguist — From 
Venern — Sinking Rock 134 



CONTENTS. Til 



CHAPTER XIV. page 

Bravo ! —White Squall — Trolhatta Falls — Urchins — 
Prisoner — Fishing Sailing — The Whirlpools — Spy- 
ing — Pretty Sophy ! — Thanks, Gentlemen . . . . 1 43 

CHAPTER XV. 

Paper Money — Scraps — Mulled Claret — The Volunteers 

— Swedish National Air — Swedish Soldiers — Over 
the Sound — Betsy Jane — A Challenge — Croquet 

in Denmark — Copenhagen — Tie to the Dane . . 152 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Big Buttons — Canoe for the Casual — Beds ! — Rob Roy 
Senior — An Old Friend — Inquisitive — Sproge Island 

— The Great Belt — Lost a Head — Down, down — 
The False Stroke — Lake Dull — Green Sailors — 

Polite in Peril 164 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Girls don't matter — Stolen — Attack on the Forts — Son- 

derburg — Libels — Forts of Diippel — Soldiers' Graves 175 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

England abroad — Invaders — Pickled Tongue — Explo- 
sion — Wrecked — Drift on the Reefs — Crying for 
Joy — Saved 182 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Old Rowlock — Foam — Isles of Denmark — Lollipops — 

Back Doors 190 



CHAPTER XX. 

Hamburg Warriors — - Mechanics' Institution — Popple on 
the Elbe — Trying a Tow— Dutchman ahoy! — Too fast 
by far — Rude — " Mout " — Sleeping on Apples — 
Curious Voyage — Looking on — Lady Rowers — 
Grandmamma — Race with a Lady — Tongue-tied . . 195 



Till CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XXI. page 

The Wizard — Hard Times — Buffeting — Son of a Sponge 

— Attack bv Natives — White Lies — Pyramid Wave 

— Dry —His Mother 208 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Heligoland — The Incongruous — Can't get out — Law in 
a Nutshell — Red Tape — Island of Dune — Envy — 
Round the Island — Sharks — Memo — On the Weser 
— Hanover — Tourists' Glances 217 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

River Geste — Roast Beef — Horrid ! — Salt Beef . . . . 229 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

The Cornwall — Running over a Steamer — Gushing — 
Queen Elizabeth — The Last Peril — Road to Death 
— Driven Mad — Touching Sight 233 



APPENDIX. 

(A.) Canoe Chat 242 

(B.) Description of the Rob Roy 243 

(0.) Danish Missions 255 

(D.) Churches and Schools in Prussia 259 



ILLUSTEATIONS, MAPS, &c. 

NORWAY. 

Sailing on the Baltic On the Cover 

First upset of the Rob Roy Frontispiece 

PAGE 

The railway dresine 8 

Through thickets wading 13 

One's back hair 19 

General route (Map 1) 25 

O'er forest dragging 28 

SWEDEN. 

My one-eyed friend 37 

Lilliputian lighthouse 45 

Route over Norway and Sweden (Map 2) 46 

All night in a lantern 59 

Cape, puzzle, and spoon 67 

Ericsson's gunboat 74 

Locks of Roxen 83 

Hooking the grayling 93 

The lonely leap 101 

Route through Vermland (Map 3) 107 

Boarding in the dark 112 

Bogies, &c 119 

Stockholm screws 125 

Dannemora Mine 132 

The spirited dog 138 

In the gale gallantly 144 

Sail, paddle, and fly 148 

Finland music 156 

DENMARK. 

The casual's canoe 165 

The false stroke 172 

Soldiers' graves at Diippel 180 

Tossed on a wreck 187 



ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS, ETC. 



HOLSTEIN. 

PA OR 

Paddling to work 197 

His grandmother 206 

Attacked by natives 212 

Eoute over Denmark and Holstein (Map 4) 216 



HOMEWAKDS. 

Heligoland 224 

Salt beef .. .. 231 

Running over a steamer 234 

The last peril 240 



APPENDIX. 

The Rob Roy as si. e is 245 

Cross sections 247 

Fittings 251 




CHAPTER 1. 



The New Canoe — Venerable Suit — Victualling — Live- 
stock — Norway — A Watery Land — The Dresine — 
A Thinking. 

The first cruise of the " Eob Eoy " was a most 
charming voyage through Belgium, Prussia, and 
Bavaria, by the Meuse and the Khine, the Main 
and the Danube, then anions: the lakes of Switzer- 
land, and on the Aar and the Reuss, and returning 
through France over the Vosges Mountains, and 
then by the Moselle, the Meurthe, the Marne, and 
the Seine. 

After people had read the account of the cruise, 
other canoes were speedily built ; the Canoe Club 
was formed. The Prince of Wales became our 
Commodore, and the Prince Imperial joined and 
paddled a Kob Eoy. 

It was so very pleasant to travel in the old 
canoe that I ventured out on a second cruise, 
and now we shall have its log. 

The hard-won experience of the former voyage 
was a great advantage to the canoeist ; and per- 
haps the reader, too, has read what was written 
about it.* 

* "A Thousand Miles in the 'Eob Eoy' Canoe on Lakes 
and Eivers of Europe." With 20 Illustrations and a Map. 
Eighth edition. 1871. Low and Marston. Among the pri- 
vate laudations of the volume must be cited with applause 

B 



Z THE NEW CANOE. 

So now we are going together, you and I, as old 
hands and old friends, but to new lands and on 
fresh waters, and in a beautiful new boat built 
with every excellence that the old " Bob Eoy " 
had, and a hundred more. 

This new canoe had been carefully designed in 
the winter, after numerous experiments in other 
boats.* 

She is shorter, narrower, shallower, lighter, and 
stronger than the old " Bob Eoy," and yet she is 
built to sail on wider lakes, and to cross green 
seas, and to live in wilder places than w T ere tried 
thus before. Therefore, also, we find in her a little 
basket with cooking things, and rice, soup, tea, 
coffee, chocolate, sugar, salt, and a good supply of 
biscuits; so that, with these provisions, we can stop 
where there is no house to rest at, and can dine 
on a lonely islet, lighting a great log fire, which 
will smoke away for an hour or two after we are 
gone, and we can look back upon its cloud-wreaths 
curling for miles behind us. The caboose of the 
" Eob Eoy " has also a spirit furnace ; and the whole 
affair in the basket weighs about 3 lbs., while my 
luggage for three months' cruising weighs 9 lbs., 
and is carried in the same black bag which was 
used before, being one foot square in size, by five 

the mot of an eccentric man, who was asked if lie had read 
the " Canoe Book," and replied with animation, " Of course ; 
it's not half so good as ' Ecce Homo.' " 

* The incessant changes and countermands of her anxious 
designer in search of perfection worried the builders ; and 
it is said that, while the new canoe was being made, 
Mr. Searle " suffered much from MaeGregor on the brain." 
A full description of the new " Kob Koy " will be found in the 
Appendix. 



VENEEABLE SUIT. 6 

inches deep. Moreover, a small packet of " reserve 
stores" is sent on a fortnight in advance, with 
more eatables and maps and books in it, for body 
and mi ad sha'n't starve. 

A week's trial of the " Rob Eoy " (the new boat 
is now meant when we use this name)* showed that 
every alteration made is an improvement. The 
paddle, so light as to weigh only 2| pounds, is 
supremely handy. The sails fitted admirably (after 
eight sets had been made). The arched deck, 
ridiculed by many when it was proposed, is now 
admitted to be grace itself ; and so the fishing-rod 
is slung on its india-rubber band, and the canoe 
is pronounced complete. 

The excellent grey flannel suit that had been 
worn for months, and rubbed and scrubbed and 
drenched and wrung some scores of times last 
year, was mustered for inspection, and as no button 
was absent and no seam was loose, this ancient 
uniform was ordered again for foreign service, and 
a fresh straw hat was enrolled. New plans had 
been devised for the luggage bag, but they were 
all inferior to the old one, which thus trium- 
phantly again secured its berth aboard, though in 
a better part of the ship — that is, ahead of the 

* The old original Eob Eoy made several trips in England 
after her " thousand miles " abroad, arid then she was taken 
in the "Sappho" yacht, with the "Eollo" canoe, of similar 
build, for a cruise along the coast of Norway ; and the little 
twin skiffs paddled and sailed among the northern fjords, and 
at last round the North Cape itself, returning to England 
safe, but battered and travel- worn. The old "Mother Eob 
Eoy " rests now at Searle's. The new canoe being shown at 
the Paris Exhibition caused the Prince Imperial of France 
to join the Canoe Club. 

b2 



4 VICTUALLING. 

stretcher — and so more conveniently stowed out 
of the way. 

The hair-brush is the same, and the new comb 
is a bit of the old one. A new drawing-book, and 
the No. 2 trousers, and the same little Testament, 
found alongside them now a warmer Sunday coat 
and a wonderful woven vest (to replace the one 
stolen on the Rhine), and which can be worn over 
everything or under all — an important capacity 
when you change from hot paddling to cooler 
sailing many times in a day. 

Then the shape and weight and size of every 
minute article of the outfit had to be studiously 
arranged ; they must be fitted together like the 
words in hexameter verse ; and the time and 
thought spent in this equipment were well repaid 
by a most successful voyage in safety and comfort, 
with the least possible expenditure of muscle and 
trouble by the way. 

And now as to victualling the ship — a new 
department. It was great fun to settle about this, 
and a practical lesson as to "what to eat, drink, 
and avoid." How many inches of portable soup 
we may load on board, and how many ounces of 
rice, squares of chocolate, cups of coffee-essence, 
and spoonfuls of tea — all to be brought from 
London, for these things are best had there. 

The medicine-chest is the same as before (a 
match-box holds it all), but quinine was added for 
the aguish lakes. 

Then there were the " ship's stores " in a pill- 
box, and the " tailor's shop " for the crew — one 
spare button, and one threaded needle in a cork,, 
guarded by twelve pins. 



LIVE-STOCK. 



Maps — excellent ones — were duly chopped up 
into squares for pocket use, and a lens was added, 
to read them by in dusky twilight. Lastly, the 
foot of magnesium wire left over from last year 
was put on board, together with "the collar." 
Only the wading shoes were discarded ; for now 
we are to rock on deeper waves, and a phial of 
brandy will be more useful than canvas slippers, 
and a life-preserver, of cork, nine inches square, 
will serve to float the crew a little when the ship 
goes down " all standing." 

Two articles only were failures ; the rope for a 
painter, though chosen with infinite care from the 
" Alpine Club " cords, never would keep soft when 
it was wet; and the captain's new metal-hafted 
knife, ferreted out from a Bond Street shop, at 
fifteen shillings, snapped, blade after blade, in a 
week, until it was replaced by a good, rough, honest- 
looking Swedish knife at five shillings, which lasted 
to the end. 

We have not half done yet with the list of 
things ; but you may think the canoe really must 
now be ready to start. No, there is the live-stock, 
i.e., the ship's dog. Chosen for me by the best dog- 
man in the world, little "Bob" was* the very best 
dog in the universe. Light, plucky, pleasant, and 
aqueous, not at all pretty, but admirably good. 
The scholar saw him in his proper place as the 
" second person singular of cano ; " and to others, 
ignorant even of dog Latin, he would say in plain 
English, " My bark is on the wave." 

He would sit on the deck behind me, and 
in the funniest way used to — well, never mind, 
now — he was stolen just before I started ; and very 



6 NOKWAY. 

likely he would have been often a pleasure, and 
very often a bore.* 

As our steamer from London, on the 2nd of 
August, nears the town of Christiania, which sits 
like a queen on the fjord, in bright colours and 
graceful outlines, the sight ought to be seen by all 
the passengers, but we have some new travellers 
on board, who select just this particular half hour 
for packing up their things in the dim and fusty 
cabin. After all the pretty scenery has been 
passed (and they have come precisely to see 
this), one of them emerges on deck in over- 
powering knickerbockers, brilliant red stockings, 
and polished pumps. How the natives will stare 
when he lands ! But let us draw a veil over those 
ruby legs, for every traveller must once be young ; 
the best of us have to enter the long lane of tour- 
ing by the green end. 

The quay is reached, and the Bob Boy is now 
aroused from its two days' sleep in the steamer's 
life-boat during our voyage, and the first crowd 
of gazers on shore follows the canoe to the rail- 
way. 

The travellers' friend in Norway is Mr. Bennet, 
who knows everything and helps everybody. He 
fills several posts of duty and honour, has an office 
full of maps and books, and a yard full of carrioles 
and carriages, and a desk full of outlandish bank 
notes for shillings ; and, if you wish to journey safe 
and fast over Norway, and with big fish to the rod, 
and big bags to the gun, it is well to talk first 

* Another ' Eob ' in my cruise of 1871 was killed by a 
steamer at night in the Zuider Zee. 



A WATEKY LAND. 7 

with Mr. Bennet. He had aided me there ten 
years ago ; but now it was an utterly new line to 
be catechized upon by the first English traveller 
mad about boats, and so he was fairly nonplussed. 
In short there was no reliable information to be 
had for a canoe journey, and thus there was all 
the pleasure to be felt in a voyage of discovery. 

People in the town were soon interested, how- 
ever, about the little skiff, in proportion to their 
own intelligence and appreciation of the novelty of 
the enterprise ; and specially the railway engineers, 
who (as w r ell as those on steamers) are ever the 
friends of the paddler. 

Any one can see by the map that Norway and 
Sweden are covered with an entanglement of water 
in rivers, lakes, and pools, netted together all over 
the broad surface for a thousand miles, and we have 
resolved to push our way through these seas and 
streams somehow or other, right away to Stock- 
holm.* 

After duly considering the pros and cons of five 
different routes, the line I selected required me to 
take the boat to Kongsvinger, which is north-east 
of Christiania about sixty miles. The railway to 
this runs alongside the lovely Glommen river, 
which winds and winds and eddies and glides just 
as the Khine does about Waldshut, and is almost 
as full of water and as pretty. There was a 
natural curiosity in my peeps out of the carriage 
window to see the rapids and whirlpools we might 
possibly have to rush down or spin round in here ; 
but it has been found that a private rehearsal of 
this sort does little good ; for when you are in a 
* See Map 2, p. 46. 



S THE DKESINE. 

boat, and on the water, it is impossible to re- 
member exactly hqw any place looked from the 
railway train, so as to obtain real benefit from 
the remembrance. 

But we are to leave the Glommen, and the 
Rob Eoy must go modestly on a far humbler 
water ; so next morning she is placed in a dresine, 
a carriage on the railway moved by cranks and 




treadles for the feet, as a velocipede is worked, 
and to which vehicle there clung as many persons 
as could hold by it, while we rumbled along until 
a halt was made near the shore of a small lake, 
from which the water overflows in winter into the 
Glommen, and so to the Skagerrack, while its only 
ordinary fall is south-east by a long and wind- 



A THINKING. 9 

ing route into the all-absorbing Vener See, and so 
into the Kattegat. 

When the Eob Eoy was carried over the rank 
grass, and gently launched on this wild water, and 
the visitors stood alongside pleasantly smiling, and 
the first stroke of the paddle moved new ripples 
on its virgin bosom, then there came into my 
soul a thrill of pleasure. " Once more free, 
alone, exploring — all before me now is unknown 
and untried, but sure to be jolly." If in such a 
time as this a man is not elated, he cannot, I 
think, be the right man for a canoe. 

The Bob Roy's engine soon settled down to 
work with a regular swing ; and the even strokes 
of the dark blue blades were long and strong in 
the new water. Then the mind, placid in solitude, 
turned itself inwards, thinking of the length of the 
journey, — the unknown difficulties to be met, 
the mysterious future of incidents to happen, the 
possible perils, the strange people and queer lan- 
guages, and curious nights and clays, the falls and 
deeps, P the rapids and shallows, the waves and 
whirlpools, the upsets and groundings, the calms 
and breezes. These and all the other countless 
varied features of a lonely water journey in a 
foreign land were all imagined with an eager, 
intense longing to meet them every one. 

What did happen afterwards on this very day 
might well have turned me back at once ; but now 
it is well that we went on through it all, else I 
should have lost one of the best of my journeys 
abroad. 



( 10 ) 



CHAPTER II. 

Too fast — Oklangen Lake — Eefractory Rice — Tracts — 
Papier Maehe — A Thought or Two — Old Lady No. 1 
— Dark Music — Behind the Scenes — Mamma and 
Daughter — Eapids of the Yrangs. 

At the end of the calm lake, wooded thickly to 
its edge, the map showed a river ; but, alas ! 
no river was there ; and as I wondered in silence, 
the quiet woods suddenly resounded with the blast 
of a trumpet. In a deep sequestered nook there 
were three companies of men drilling amid the 
trees — the very last thing one would expect to 
meet as the first event of a voyage. Every man 
of them caught sight of the Eob Roy, and they 
marched on, indeed, in column, but all of them 
with " Eyes right," for they were all staring side- 
ways at the canoe. 

This military and naval combination was not in 
their " Eecl Book ; " so the officer, being a wise 
man, dismissed his array, and down they rushed 
en masse to the water. 

The officer explained to me in French, that 
they were the local Landvehr, camping out for 
six days; and as the men crowded round, each 
holding his hat in his hand whenever he came 
within a certain radius of his captain's august 
presence, and caressing the little canoe with smiles 
of pleasure, he posted a sentry with fixed bayo- 
net to guard the Eob Eoy, lying on the green 



TOO FAST. 11 

rushes in the sun ; and lie led me off to his hut, 
so prettily garnished with nasturtiums and pic- 
tures — one of them a print labelled " View of 
Hackney Church/' at least a hundred years old. 
Then, after refreshments served, a cart was got,, 
and we started for another lake. The soldier 
leading the horse allowed it to go too fast, and in 
vain I shouted to stop. All the others shouted 
too. Off started the spirited nag down hill, and 
dragging the man after him, until the pace 
quickened into a full gallop ; but the more we 
shouted the worse it was, for the horse kicked 
and plunged, and overthrew the man, and then 
darted into a corn-field, and headlong rushed 
down to a gate, where the cart was dashed to 
pieces, the wheels going one way, and the horse 
and shafts and canoe draped along; another at a 
racing pace, till at a fence the whole was over- 
turned, in a crash of broken palings. 

All this occurred in about as much time as you 
have taken to read the account, but this time was 
enough to let me — running at full speed — become 
cheerfully resigned to the terrible catastrophe, 
and even to arrive on the scene w r ith a laugh 
(hysteric probably), and the thought, " Well, it is 
sad ; but it is better the poor little boat should 
be entirely smashed rather than have only some 
deadly wounds, and so need to be helped along 
limping for months in a lingering existence of 
leaks and patches." 

I heeded not the broken cart and the runaway 
horse, but rushed to my canoe. I turned her over 
as one would tenderly handle a child thrown from 
a carriage, and what was my wonder to find she 



12 OKLANGEN LAKE. 

was perfectly whole — only the flagstaff broken, 
and one or two ribs, and scarcely a scratch on the 
fine varnish, and not one crack in thQ cedar deck. 
Nay, there was not a bottle broken in my stores, 
and all this because she had made a somersault on 
the paling just broken, as she landed on it most 
happily on her strong oak stem, which still bears 
a deep mark, but no other injury. 

This adventure was so extraordinary, and the 
escape so marvellous, that we have detailed it at 
length, and do earnestly hope we shall never have 
to recount another of the kind.* 

The officer positively refused to let me pay for 
the ruined cart, saying it belonged to the " sub- 
sidy," and he was proud to help me. He was in 
earnest, too, and it was but an augury of many 
like acts of Scandinavian love of the Englishman. 

A new cart took us to Oklangen Lake, deep and 
dark, with matted trees and luxuriant plants over- 
growing its rocky sides. After a delightful paddle 
along this I was most glad to find no water in the 
hold — not a nail had been started. Let every 
canoeist abide by my advice to have an oak canoe. 

The roar of a waterfall told that the river was 
now available; so we have fairly begun the 
Vrangs Elv at its very source. A large saw-mill 
was here, but not a man was to be seen : they had 
all gone to dinner (i middags) ; so we thought it 
would be a good idea to do the same. We dragged 
the Rob Roy to the a smithy,*' and rigged up our 
fire on the anvil, fencing it round w T ith bricks to 
keep the draught from the little lamp. Preserved 
soup was soon boiling with a savoury odour, and 
* Pee Frontispiece, 



REFRACTORY RICE. 



13 



we put lots of rice in, but somehow the grains of 
rice would not get large, as you have them when 
properly cooked, and we soon found they ought to 
be steeped first. However, there was no time for 




a hungry man to wait, so, large or small, the rice 
was capital to eat with my wooden spoon and fork 
(they are united in one, see page 67, fig. 3), and 



14 TKACTS. 

with biscuits and mild brandy-and-water the 
bivouac was done. 

The workpeople were astonished on their return 
to find the anvil with a banquet on it ; and when 
^,11 was packed up we launched on the river again, 
which for some miles was like a little Scotch 
trout stream, with purling ripples and long pools 
quite concealed by thick foliage, tangled ferns 
and fallen larches, drooping so low as to cause me 
to stoop again and again to pass. Sometimes I 
had to wade, but the fine summer-day sun made 
this pleasant, and it was cool to dabble in the 
bright crystal stream, and chase the water ousels 
or grasp at the fish — always, however, in vain. 

In travelling abroad where you cannot speak 
fluently their language, and yet you pass among 
thousands of men and women who are on life's 
road with yourself, and who would hear a friendly 
word about another life if you could speak to 
them on this great subject, it is very well that 
you can give them on paper, and in their own 
tongue plainly printed, what is good for them and 
for you to think of every day. 

Because many tracts are weak and badly written, 
and are given imprudently, therefore some people 
decry all tracts. Because papers are given some- 
where unwisely they would have you give no 
papers abroad. It would be quite as logical to 
denounce all talk with the foreigners, because a 
good deal of talk is most vapid. The Norwe- 
gians and Swedes are able to read ; more of 
them are so far educated than in the like number 
of any nation of Europe. They eagerly accept 
papers (call them tracts, or not), and they do this 



PAPIER MACHE. 15 

more readily from Englishmen, and most readily 
when the man who gives them is otherwise enlist- 
ing their attention by his manner of life or travel. 
No place, therefore, is better suited for giving 
tracts than Scandinavia. 

The following story will show, however, that 
good tracts must be rightly carried as well as 
prudently given. In a former journey here three 
of us brought 3000 tracts and many Testaments 
for distribution. A great bundle of these was 
packed in the same tin case with some pounds 
of hard biscuits, and this was placed on my car- 
riole. The rattling made by this incongruous 
packet attracted my attention when w r e first set 
off and jolted along ; but I noticed that the, sound 
got more and more dead after some miles on 
the road, until at last it subsided into a deep- 
toned thump as the wheels went over a stone. 

At night we opened the tin box, and found 
only a mass of fine dust like meal. The biscuits 
were pounded into grains, and little bits of paper, 
with one letter perhaps on each, represented the 
luckless tracts that had been packed with them. 

But what remained in other bundles of our 
papers and books were given and received with 
pleasure among thousands. People ran along the 
road to beg for a paper, and often it was handed 
to them on the end of a whip. Sometimes these 
were read among crowds of attentive listeners; at 
other times boats came to us on lakes by moon- 
light or by the Aurora gleams, and entreated 
they might have a " bok," offering us money for 
a New Testament. 

As to the amount of good these tracts may do, 



16 A THOUGHT OR TWO. 

let those speak (yes, and only those) who have 
carefully given them, and patiently watched the 
results. For my own part, after many years' 
experience in the matter, I am fully convinced 
of the vast benefit done in this way, while fully 
sensible also of the need of prudence and common 
sense in using this means of good. And what 
means is there that does not require attentive 
regard in applying it, and prayer for a blessing 
on its use? 

To ridicule the general practice of tract giving 
is too ridiculous. To put it down by banter is 
impossible ; and you are not likely to improve it 
by laughing. Therefore let me say, once for all, 
that on this voyage, as on every other tour, I 
constantly gave tracts; feeling, too, that if the 
people around me were not available for this sort 
of communication, or if I was not ready to use it 
on their behalf, there must be some constraint on 
their side or on mine, which ought not to exist 
between the sons and daughters of Adam, pilgrims 
in a world together, and with great and broad 
and deep and lofty things in common, which ought 
never to be very distant from our thoughts, and 
which one day must be near. Now you have 
had a tract from the " Chaplain of the Canoe/' 

Another lake came next, and with it new 
pleasures; for there is as much difference between 
canoeing on rivers and lakes as there is between 
traversing mountains and plains. On the stream 
you have the current, the waterfall, the rapid, and 
the unfolding panorama, of which only a few hun- 
dred yards are seen at once. The lake, again, 
has its grander distances, its lofty cliffs, its rocks 



OLD LADY NO. 1. 17 

>and islets, its stately trees, and its lively waves, 
which give quite another spirit to the boat, or, if 
it is calm, then the weird picture on the liquid 
mirror shines back the sunlight at evening, and 
the floating clouds piled high in the air above are 
hugely massed again in reflection below. 

But these clouds are not always so romantic 
and so far out of reach. Soon they closed round, 
and very prosaic rain teemed forth and hissed 
again on the surface of the lake. There was no 
eluding this straight down-pour, and the crew 
might have mutinied had we gone on much longer 
in a deluge ; so it was determined to stop at the 
only house, and to fish in the evening, if the rain, 
should . cease. I put the Kob Eoy safe under a 
bank, and walked through thick bushes to the 
humble dwelling. 

Only an old woman was inside — all the men 
were away; but we praised the scones she was 
baking, so she brought them in with coffee, but 
was evidently uncertain whether it might not all 
be a dream to see, for the very first time in her 
life, a grown man dressed in grey flannel, and 
talking what sounded to her like gibberish, yet 
manifestly very well able to eat like the mortals 
of her acquaintance. 

Most luckily I managed to find two men on the 
road, and though they were wet and weary, mere 
tramps going on their way, they came with me 
to the boat, hidden under a bramble bush, with 
all the cows staring at it, as they always do here 
— indeed they will run along the bank of a river 
for half a mile with tails in the air, and "mooing" 
•as fiercely as they can. 

c 



18 DARK MUSIC. 

The worthy old dame was persuaded by signs 
to give me a room, and the men went off, alter 
shaking hands vigorously, for sixpence each, and 
I coolly pulled the canoe right into this bedroom,, 
if " bed" indeed it can be called, which was only 
straw, though the lady gave me a sheepskin — 
and a great population in it — to sleep upon, 
with my cork seat and macintosh for a pillow. 
Madame also brought in at night some, grdd 
(porridge) and milk, a luxury not to be had in a 
hotel; so all four meals to-day were breakfasts. 
One chair was in the room, and two square blocks 
of timber; while green bushes with leaves on 
adorned the walls, and were sweet preserves for 
the mosquito game. The worst was she had no 
light of any kind ; and to sit in the dark for 
hours before bedtime, with no one to speak to, 
and all one's thinking already exhausted in the 
boat, w r as a pretty start for the night. However, 
a light was found at eleven p.m., after hours of 
dark if not gloomy meditation, and just at the 
era when a squalling baby piped up for its noc- 
turnal concerto. 

For one so very fond of little children, it is but 
fair to hear them in their bad times, and not only 
in their good times. It would have been easy 
enough, then, to get on with the baby music ; but 
a long and sad experience has made me acquainted 
with the tactics of the other minor visitors, which 
now in a regular army marched to the attack 
from their camp in the sheepskin. 

As a general maxim it is best, if there be only 
two or three of such intruders, to let them have 
their way, and they will go to sleep after a good 



BEHIND THE SCENES. 



19 



supper, and then the victim may sleep too. Bat 
with hundreds and thousands this will not do. 
Put your trousers inside your stockings, tie your 
handkerchief over your face (making a' hole for 




one's back hair." 



mouth and nose), stick your hands deep in your 
pockets, and if you can get asleep before the 
enemy finds his way into your entrenchment it is 

c 2 



20 MAMMA AND DAUGHTER. 

well. But if one light skirmisher gets in before 
you are fast asleep, be sure the army is not far 
behind. Your defences are enfiladed, and your 
flank is turned. You may now surrender, for that 
night is gone. 

People are astir early in these parts. By five 
o'clock the household is on the move, and so am 
I ; no toilet to make, no glass wherein to look. 

Behold how the neighbours have come in relays 
of six at a time. But none brings a basin, and so 
we must trust for a bath in the lake, calling to 
mind how, in this unkempt manner, once before, 
long ago, in a rough part of Norway, three of us 
went out to bathe, each clad only in a Scotch 
plaicl ; and as we stooped by a river and each 
used his tooth-brush, the populace assembled to 
learn and to admire. 

After the exhibition had closed, and boiled eggs 
had been administered to the captain, and a scrub- 
bing to the boat, we gave our hostess two shillings, 
which she said was far too much, though for three 
meals and a night's unrest surely it was mode- 
rate payment. Gratitude made her insist upon 
carrying the canoe herself to the water ; so, with 
her daughter bearing the bow and mamma carry- 
ing the stern, the procession of three persons 
emerged from her door, and much laughter fol- 
lowed. 

Oh the fresh air of the morning, with a new 
sun and another day, and all so still but the soft 
dip of the blue-bladed oar ! Fat and fierce dragon- 
flies hover about me with their big staring eyes, 
and that little spider has fallen on the deck as 
it grazed the reeds just now. He walked all 



EAPIDS OF THE YKANGS. 21 

round, poor fellow, in vain seeking an escape, and 
dropping down a dozen times into the water, but 
always hauling up when that exit was found 
barred. He paused then, and seemed to ponder, 
and lifted his arm to the air to find if the wind 
would hoist him in a balloon of his own make. 
Think what an addition it would be to our capa- 
cities if we could at all times spin a hundred yards 
of fine rope strong enough to bear 200 lbs. weight! 
Has not that line of Terence — " Homo sum," &c. 
— the defect of excluding animals from our in- 
terest ? Well, the cabin boy of the canoe became 
so concerned about our spider friend that at length 
we were constrained to pull to land, that the pigmy 
spinner might be safe ashore. 

After several lakes were traversed, with thick 
trees all round, and man, beast, and house entirely 
away, we got into full swing upon the river again, 
and for two days it twisted and turned amid rocks, 
green mossy banks, and thickets ; always going 
fast enough to let me fish comfortably, and yet 
make progress all the time. We met only one 
serious rapid, or "force," as it is called at Ente- 
raden, and about fifty people gathered to see us 
pass over it. The caution which arises from expe- 
rience made me somehow less daring about these 
rapids than in last year's voyage, feeling, perhaps, 
more now than ever before how much would be 
lost if a grand cruise were to be cut short by 
smashing the canoe. 



( 22 ) 



CHAPTER III. 

Natives — How do you find the Way? — Which is it? — 
Water-logged — Wood, Wood — Dragging — Soft Men 
— Man in the Moon — Sleep-walker. 

The most frequent questions of inquiring visitors, 
when they send in their cards for a call on the 
Eob Roy, are the following : — 

" But how did you manage about the language ? " 
" And how did you find your way ? " 
To the first of these a reply at some length may 
be found in the account of my former tour, where 
the crew of the boat had to converse with people 
of four different languages, besides half-a-dozen 
patois and pure " bargee." In this northern ex- 
pedition, also, w r e had to talk with Norwegians, 
Swedes, Danes, and Germans, then with the 
dialects of Slesvig and of Holstein, the Piatt 
tongue of the Elbe, and the whole jumbled into 
an inscrutable insular gabble at Heligoland. 

English, however, carries you a long way in the 
North, and broad Scotch helps you further here, 
and signs do beyond that; and as a last resort 
you can sketch wants and order pictorially. It 
is curious, too, how speedily you acquire foreign 
words when you are forced to do it ; and, more- 
over, there is a special faculty of the mind, which 
is marvellously brightened by practice, that of 
" making people understand," and of " making out 
what they say." 

But this matter of language is made easy by 



NATIVES. 23 

the very fact of travelling with a canoe, for when 
a human being comes into a village in this novel 
fashion, the curiosity to hear from him is so great 
that the people do all they can to open up com- 
munication. If there be one man there who can 
speak English, French, G-erman, or Latin, be it 
ever so little and bad, he is sure to come forward, 
or to be pushed forward, as an interpreter ; and, 
as the newspapers made everybody acquainted 
with the Rob Roy's progress, there was always 
some " Dominie Sampson" of the district who 
came to the front in this way. 

Sailors too, you will find are the most intel- 
ligent class to speak with, when you and they 
have but few words in common. The words they 
learn of other tongues are just those about the 
things which you want most to speak of. So 
the words they know may be few, but they know 
the useful ones. 

As for the more educated class in these 
northern countries, they are delighted to practise 
their English or French with a stranger ; and 
often I found school-boys who were learning 
English so troublesome in their desire to speak 
with me, that patience was drawn upon largely to 
satisfy their eagerness. 

Instances of this will appear further on, and 
amusing examples of the struggles they make 
abroad to pronounce English as we do at home. 
Therefore, let nobody hesitate to canoe it because 
he does not know foreign lano*uafres ; but let no 
one rely on these to accomplish his tour. In such 
a voyage, believe me, " gumption " is more useful 
than German, and friendliness than French. 



24 HOW DO YOU FIND THE WAY? 

As for " finding the way," that is entirely 
another matter ; for the natives cannot tell you 
what they themselves do not know, that is, the 
route by water even in their own locale. In a 
river it is not often difficult to find the way, 
though hard enough sometimes to keep in it 
safely. You have only to hit the right branch, 
and then to go on down stream, taking a little 
care not to go down to the bottom. 

In this northern tour, among lakes and intricate 
seas, it was not so easy to manage. In these 
places there is either no current to guide you, or 
an unseen one that deceives, and there are count- 
less islands to mislead. You sit so low in the 
boat that one tree-clad rock may hide for an 
hour the very bay you are in search of. The 
sun behind the clouds is no index, and the wind 
changes with every bend of the shores. A com- 
pass, unless the needle is six inches long, only 
puzzles your-pate. It gives the general direction ; 
but what you want is the right or left of a par- 
ticular islet perhaps only a hundred yards long. 
Yet one charm of the canoe trip is this very 
demand upon that instinct — for, after all, it is 
something like the faculty of an animal — which, 
being developed by months of travel in this 
manner, enables you to say with confidence, " I 
feel sure that the inlet to such a village is behind' 
that rock." 

In most of these lakes you cannot inquire your 
way. There is nobody to inquire from. You are 
going where nobody else goes, and so nobody 
knows the way to it, and nobody could make you 
understand it, if he tried. " The map ought to 



Sliedand Isles 






ftp 1. 



: 3T 

o 

CkristCansaJ"/ 



Gulf of 
JBothnia 



CHRIS-TTAKA ft} 
Cocrl$t(uL,'' 



&*$2. 






.'W 



JST O R T/ H 






p 



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3 

Helgoland 1? 



^)BNMAR^ ,^C0 PENHAXJEtf ^ 



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56 






A N Y 



Yincent Brooks , litti. London . 



SKELETON MAP I. 

OTv s7rLcM'ScaZ& siiewvag the/ route of the Caiwe 
by ay dotted 7zrte. Of this P \e> part truirhecL 
Map 2. will/ be fowid/ separate/ and oris a Larger 
ScaZe< at/ page J 23. also the part rn/zrheob 3fap 
J. at the page stated/ tjv the CortierUs'. 



WHICH IS IT? 25 

help, then," it may be said. Yes, the map helps 
much in the easy places, but it confuses you in 
the hard ones. 

Say you get among the 1400 islands in the 
Malar Lake ; why, there are not thirty of them 
marked even on the largest map. But you cannot 
tell which of the wooded points and hills around 
are the marked islands. You do not see all round, 
or half round any of them, and the end of a large 
island may appear from your boat like the body 
of a small one, or a little one near you will obscure 
two big ones farther off. 

The island of Onson in Venern, which looks 
clear enough on the map (at page 46), was so 
like many others not marked on the map, when 
seen in actual existence from the water, that it 
cost me three or four landings and climbings 
before I could make sure on the subject. 

From all this it will be gathered that if there 
are, say, twenty islands in the way, it is fallacious 
to measure the distance between any two villages 
by scale on a map, as if you had only to paddle 
that number of miles ; and yet that it is happy 
for you — as it was with me almost every day — 
to have the time, energy, weather, and inclination 
to make a zig-zag progress such as that marked 
on Map 1, and thus to see many hidden beauties, 
while the distance traversed is double that of the 
direct course. So much for the general subject ; 
but meantime we are not troubled with difficul- 
ties of this sort, for w T e are only as yet in a well- 
linked chain of water. 

But this chain very soon gets entangled and 
knotty, for logs of timber float around us as we near 



26 WATER-LOGGED. 

ti saw-mill, and at length they block the channel 
completely across. After once or twice dragging 
the boat round, and taking my luggage in a second 
trip, we came one evening to a timber-block 
extending fully a mile. No one was in sight, and 
I was nonplussed, but as things always turn up if 
you have patience, I established my cookery under 
the arch of a bridge, and while at supper a boy 
came. We gave him some coffee, and when he 
was in good humour we offered him a sixpence if 
he would get two men, and this he faithfully did. 

Fiery sun glittered above next day, and drove 
me under the shady trees for miles and miles, at 
t he very time when (as I hear now) it was rainy 
and cold in Scotland, and in Switzerland sloppy 
and miserable. In both my canoe tours the 
weather has been favourable. Only two wet days 
last year, and in this summer not one day on 
which it was too cold to sit in a single coat, not 
one in which the rain was bad enough to keep the 
Eob Eoy indoors. 

But the obstruction of timber logs was a novelty 
which we had never met in the twelve great rivers 
of the former voyage. 

These logs are cut in the forests, and then 
tumbled into the w 7 ater, to find their way down 
stream. Men with long poles push them into 
the current when they get embayed in crooked 
corners. But in August these men are not allowed 
to walk by the river for this purpose, because the 
crops are grown up ; and so one or tw r o of the 
logs will get fixed, and then hundreds gradually 
arriving, and thousands more, the whole water is 
covered with a brown-coloured raft. 



WOOD — WOOD. 27 

As the rivers are not navigated, tins wooden 
surface is left for weeks untouched; but it is a 
serious matter for a canoe to come to such a floating 
barrier. For the logs are too close to each other 
for any passage, and they are too small and round 
to allow the canoeist to drag his boat over. No- 
thing could be done then but to drag the canoe 
round such a flooring as this, and, in order to see 
how long my traverse might be, I had generally to 
mount some hill for a view. 

Once, in a very lonely spot on the Vrangs, we 
found the timber reached as far as the eye could 
see, so we concealed the boat under a dark tree, 
and then toiled up a hill on a calm, hot day. The 
view was at once charming and alarming. Wood, 
wood, wood, on to the horizon ; the wood on shore 
being green and growing, and every bend of the 
river entirely covered with dead logs, thousands 
and thousands, silent and brown. Nobody in sight, 
and no house, I sat and waited for events, but 
nothing would happen, nothing seemed disposed 
to turn up — only birds chirped. 

Lunch and a cigar braced me up to the inevit- 
able task, for we must now drag the Eob Boy 
through the forest, or w r e must die and be buried 
there, like the babes in the wood. 

This was a heavy piece of work to contemplate, 
especially as there was no knowing how many 
miles must be traversed on shore before open water 
could be found. But I thought of M'Clintock 
hauling his boats on snow when ice-packs blocked 
up the sea channel, and then I took out all the 
luggage, and the mast, sails, paddle, floor-boards, 
&c. &c, and set off with the bundle as a sort of 



28 



DRAGGING. 



pilot load, so as to find the best route for dragging 
the boat afterwards, through the dense trees, 
rough roots, and boggy swamps. 




I was lazy at first, owing to the heat, but soon a 
vigorous spirit got aroused, and the magnitude of 
the undertaking, its novelty, and the curious plans 
we had to adopt for getting over dikes, hedges, 
brooks, and hillocks, not to say the exertion 



SOFT MEN. 29 

required for penetrating thickets and copses where 
no man (let alone a boat) had ever roamed, soon 
became deeply interesting, and we worked for 
hours at it, until by double journeys both boat and 
things were all transported to open country once 
more, and we launched the Eob Roy on its 
proper element again, with a glorious evening still 
before us. A deal canoe would have yielded up 
its slender life in a brief half-mile of work like 
this. 

The final block of the kind, near the village of 
Eastacl, compelled me to find two men to carry the 
canoe over the fields to a house, or night would 
have caught me there. The people seeing her 
arrive, were more than ever amazed ; and, as they 
knew the river was full of wood for miles, they 
asked the man in her how he could possibly have 
come by the Vrangs and then he shook his head 
in a grave and mystical way; 

Next day the boat was put on a long cart, con- 
sisting of one pole and four wheels, and w r e made 
two men sit on these and hold the Eob Eoy on 
their knees, so that the bumps and thumps of a 
road full of ruts were softened for the canoe by two 
excellent human cushions. This plan answered 
admirably, and was very comfortable, at any rate 
for the boat. 

" No more wood," they said ; the river was hence- 
forth open, so now came the luxury of the voyage. 
Deep, rapid, winding streams, with fine rocks, very 
thick trees, leaping trout, great bounding falls, and 
then for miles along sunny meads, where I cast 
my red-hackle fly just on the fishes' noses, and 
wisely reclined with my feet on deck, while they 



30 MAN IN THE MOON. 

laboriously jumped into the air all on a fine 
summer's evening. 

Query, as a piece of pure casuistry, Is it quite 
honest to deceiva — a man ? — No ! But a robber ? 
— Doubtful. Well, then, a fish ? The feathers at 
the end of your casting line are — you cannot deny 
it — a gross piece of humbug. 

The wind rose, and we sailed merrily past large 
flat barges full of crude iron. They straggle up 
the Vrangs a mile or two, but we must now be 
near its end. And see how the rocks trend away 
right and left as we dash out into the deep, dark, 
lonely Hugen Sje, a lake only four or five miles 
long, but with waves of its own that will shake 
my bottles in their basket. 

I had passed into Sweden, for the boundary was 
near Morast, where the forest is cleft over hill and 
down dale and along the weary flat, with a broad 
belt of cleared timber, and with cairns of stones at 
intervals. This frontier line (just like those in 
Canada) runs north and south for a thousand 
miles. 

Perhaps it was this long ruled mark on the world 
that suggested to a philosophical dreamer that we 
of Earth might endeavour to speak to the people in 
the moon by planting on the snows of Siberia a 
triangle of trees, and the pons asinorum of Euclid 
clone in fir forests, so that any schoolboy in our 
pale satellite could see plainly that we worldlings 
are at least geometers. 

In the little inn we found what was plainly a 
Briton, with dinner done and a large bottle empty. 
" You are English," said he. " Try some of this 
ale ; it's really good. I'm a citizen of the world ; 



SLEEP-WALKER. 31 

the earth's my home ; my carpet bag's my fortune. 
They don't know I'm here. Ha ! ha ! try to shut 
me up, indeed — catch me, first. I proposed the 

telegraph line to Capital speculation, too. 

They sentenced me to prison in France. You're 
to sleep here. It's a double-bedded room, no 
doubt, but I don't like that. Well, you may have 
one bed, as you're English. Don't be alarmed, for 
I speak in my sleep and walk about the room in 
the dark." 

" Not at all frightened," said I ; " and mind you 
don't grope near me in the dark, for I've an un- 
fortunate habit of hitting right and left — arms 
rather strong — been paddling for a week." Then 
he chuckled, and said, softly, he would tell me of 
a really wonderful phenomenon he had found in 
the room : " The washing things, &c, are made of 
clear glass." And so they were ! 

Out of his carpet bag rolled sovereigns, shirts, 
shoes, and guide books, all in a muddle ; but I 
gobbled up an omelette, and had a sound sleep. 



( 32 ) 



CHAPTER IV. 

Bivouac — Stick to the Boat — Thirty Miles a Day — Polite- 
ness — Dame Cyclops — Miss Kjerstin — Dazzled — 
Elga Lake — Pike and Cream — Sluggard — A Little 
Bill. 

During the last few clays we had most of the 
incidents that were met in the former tour — 
shallows to wade in, falls and weirs to lower the 
canoe over, trees to stoop under, rapids to dash 
through, and then the novel times with the logs of 
timber. 

But from henceforward a change occurred, and 
quite new features marked the voyage. No more 
wading or weirs or logs, and but few rapids and 
falls, for we had entered a chain of lakes more or 
less beautiful, and of all varieties in size, shape, 
and depth, in colour and kind. To view these 
from the top of a hill was at first delightful, but 
on reflecting how far I had to work through that 
maze of water dotted over miles of wooded 
country, and every inch to be gained by the 
paddle blades (for the course was still east and 
against the wind), the question arose, " How will 
the biceps of my arm feel by the time we reach 
that distant thing over there — the lake which, 
like a patch of silver, glitters from far in the sun- 
beam?" 

New experience, too, had to be learned in the 
bivouac line. For it is easier to find a good 



BIVOUAC. 33 

cooking-place in a river than at one end or other 
of a lake; and it would never do to go edging 
along the shores to look for a dining-room, though 
my usual course was each day to go serpentine 
till I tired, and then straight to the roosting-place 
for the night. 

On the other hand, when we get hungry in the 
river, it is enough to begin to " look out," say at 
11 a.m., and a good spot is always found before 
noon — either a tree, or a hay-shed, or a waterfall, 
or a secluded bank — the best, of course, being 
some kind of hut, where water will be soonest 
boiled for soup or chocolate, as the lamp is pro- 
tected from the wind.* 

But in choosing a cooking-place on a wide lake 
or the sea-shore, there are several requisites to be 
borne in mind as you paddle along, and with keen, 
empty hunger quickening your choice. 

The place, then, must be shaded from sun, 
sheltered from wind, without flies, but with 
plenty of dry wood for a glorious bonfire, near 
good moorings and calm w 7 ater, perfectly se- 
questered ; and therefore an island is best, where 
your cork life-preserver makes a good dry seat, 
and there are suitable stones for a table and 
kitchen, a soft bank to lie upon, and a pretty view 
to look upon all the time. 

Two hours will be spent herein fixing up, cook- 
ing, and cooling down the viands, eating them, 
and a sweet siesta ; so it is worth while to search 
for a really good place, and when you leave it 
there is even an affectionate regret at the parting. 

* The " Eob Boy Cuisine," the new lamp I devised for the 
Jordan cruise, makes all now easy in this part of one's duty. 

D 



34: STICK TO THE BOAT. 

The nook has been your kitchen, dining-room, and 
study, and many a look is cast back on it as the 
smoke still curls up from the big trees you set 
a-blazing. 

Experience had also to be wrought out in the 
matter of weather, for last year's fair days' voyage 
did not teach me what to do in rain. Therefore, 
now, in a storm of it, sometimes we drew into shore, 
and went under a tree for shelter; the larch-tree 
was found to be far the best for resisting a long and 
heavy down-pour. On two occasions we tried to 
elude the worst by leaving the boat, but both were 
sad failures. In the first we were in a most wild 
lake (without any name), and the edges were bleak 
banks of rushes. A black nimbus climbed the 
sky, and darkness was in its cold breath, which we 
knew was to be followed by a regular drenching. 
The Eob Boy was pressed with eager speed to 
the inhospitable shore; and after half-an-hour's 
scramble to get on more solid land, and a yam 
effort to obtain the least atom of help in a village, 
there was nothing to be done but to re-embark, 
thoroughly discomfited, and thoroughly soaked. 
This was the only occasion when I could not find 
any help ; but recollect they did not see the boat ; 
she was hidden in the rushes, and I ought never to 
have left her thus, — sorely we suffered for the 
blunder. The other instance, teaching the same 
lesson, will be related further on. 

The main design of this canoe voyage was, in the 
first place, to go by water from Christiania to Stock- 
holm ; and already we had done the part never 
accomplished before by any boat, and only possible 
for a canoe. From henceforth deep-water lakes 



THIRTY MILES A DAY. 35 

and sea fjords would more often be my road. All 
of them were interesting in beauty, wildness, colour, 
or contour, while none were positively grand. 
Every day was very pleasant, and in most the 
weather was exactly the thing — cool, sunny, and 
bright, with plenty of wind. The change from 
river to lake was like that in riding from a green 
lane to a wide plain. And sometimes too, this 
change was a surprise, for all the lakes are not 
marked in the map. Between the Vinger Sje and 
the Hugen Sje there are eight separate lakes, but 
look on the Map No. 2, at page 46, and you do 
not see one. 

For a week the wind had been south-east, that 
is, just in my teeth, but the sailing-days were to 
come, on fresh water and salt, and my arms were 
now well braced up to thirty miles a day, even with 
the wind ahead, but in the finest temperature 
imaginable for muscular exertion and appetizing 
toil. 

As I rejoiced in this success, and kept pondering 
in silence to find out any imaginable improvement 
to be suggested in the canoe, I began all at once 
to feel there was a sensible current in the lake, 
now narrowed to a river-like creek, and at last 
actually going under a bridge, and thus into the 
long and lovely lake beyond. 

Bocks covered with spruce, larch, and beech, 
and of every shape and curve, with bays, 
promontories, and islands, opened in gradual 
panorama as we passed along; and a gladsome 
buoyancy of spirit in the fine fresh breeze forced 
me to shout and sing aloud though alone, or to 
whistle in bright merriment gaily by the hour. 

D 2 



36 POLITENESS. 

Life of any other sort seemed tedious compared 
with this, and travelling in any other way a 
bore. 

The houses dotted here and there are red in 
colour, all of wood, large, and well lighted. Most 
of the men wear caps, as the Eussians do ; and 
there are real flowers sometimes in the women's 
hair — a pretty fashion. They all salute the passer 
by, and the women curtsey politely. This is all 
very nice to see, to praise, and to wish for ; but it 
would be irksome for a profoundly practical people, 
such as we are, to waste so much time on this 
particular duty, though certainly we often omit 
these proper amenities where they ought to be 
attended to. Swedish politeness, if observed in 
Piccadilly, would require every man who has 
friends to carry a hat in his hand. For the sake 
of his head, indeed, and of neuralgia, he might also 
have another hat in its usual place. 

The change from the Norwegian to the Swedish 
language was pretty clearly marked, and though we 
had been twice before in Sweden, it was necessary 
now to acquire the " Svenske" tongue anew, that 
is, of course, the few needful words which six days 
will easily give to any one who keeps his ears open 
and his wits about him. 

The Eanke See was my next lake, a long and 
pretty course; but we must shorten the narration 
of these delightful clays, for repetitions, even if 
pleasant in fact, are tedious in telling, and still 
worse to read. Indeed, the time and muscle 
consumed in the actualities of this northern tour 
are so great a draught upon energy, that we may 
be excused from any attempt at making a hand- 



DAME CYCLOPS. 



37 



book for canoeists here, and we must be content to 
notice the salient features of some typical events. 
The weather still continued magnificent, with only 
a few heavy showers, and in a fine sunny evening 
we landed at the end of the lake Banke, and 
walked up to a house where was a very old woman 




with one eye. She was terribly puzzled when I 
invaded her cottage on the cliff, and urged her to 
come and see the boat. But when she had seen 
the skiff she at once took a motherly interest in 
the skipper, and we carried the Bob to a cowhouse, 
where it was hid in the rafters, while I took my 
luggage to a very fine farm-house, and knocked, 
and walked in. 

Mr. Svenson received me rather coldly at first, 



38 MISS KJERSTIN. 

but soon lie, too, became interested ; and I find it 
best not to ask immediately for night quarters, 
rather to leave to the host at the proper time to 
give himself the pleasure of offering these. This, 
then, he kindly did, and going upstairs we found 
his wife reading a great Bible, and both of them 
were delighted to examine my little canoe Testa- 
ment, one which has been a good deal battered 
about by use in the open air. 

The three comely daughters of the mansion 
vied with each other in attention, and all of us 
went down to inspect the canoe. 

Hitherto they had been coldly hospitable, but 
now a complete change immediately followed.. 
" They came, they saw, I conquered." Luggage 
may be brought by a tramp, but a boat — and such 
a boat ! — could not but certify the traveller, and 
arouse due enthusiasm. Triumphant progress,, 
therefore, of the canoe on the shoulders of Thor- 
sten and Oswald, ploughboys, proud to bear her 
home — grand concert in her honour — admission 
free. So while Miss Kjerstin played the guitar 
and sang the spirited songs of Sweden, I sketched 
the view of the lake from the window, and a like- 
ness of the girl herself, which being done with a 
few complimentary touches pleased her and all the 
servants immensely, and the portrait was duly 
ensconced on the wall. Here, indeed, was a group 
for a painter ; the father demure and satisfied, the 
mother staid and watchful, and the bright young- 
girl tinkling the wires of the guitar with a simple 
innocent look, but withal a proud one, not dis- 
mayed. 

A maiden at music always seems to me the 



DAZZLED. 39 

most nervous of trials. Speaking in public, for a 
man, is nothing to it. He can stare at the 
starers, but a girl has to sing under the close 
scrutiny of others, which she may only know 
with averted eyes. I wonder how they ever 
can do it in company without making every note 
a tr. 

Then we had bacon, and pancakes, and pota- 
toes, and rice, and milk, the farmer and his guest 
apart from others, and the wife waiting on both ; 
and I gave maclame half a pound of the best rice 
from London, for which she curtsied deeply, and 
shook hands. The son came in from the fields, a 
fine young fellow, rather Italian in face, and sing- 
ing comic songs and warlike marches until I went 
to my bed-room.* The hostess remained a long- 
time with me there examining our canoe kit, and 
at length I resolved to return to the sitting-room 
below, and to give them all a treat with the mag- 
nesium wire. So Ave burned a piece amid the 
crowd of hinds and damsels, whereat arose a shriek 
of wonder, and before it had subsided, or they 
could see anything at all, after gazing on the 
blinding light, their necromancing guest had es- 
caped to bed. 

Farmer Svenson had sent me up to bed in 
comfort, and his assiduous hospitality began early 
next day with the glass of schnapps, which seems 
to precede every meal, and to follow it also, inter- 

* One of these national airs will be found further on 
(page 156). A famous Swedish singer was spoken of with 
rapture as " equal to Jenny Lind," the now famed Christine 
Nilsson. Every third woman here is Kjerstin, and every 
fourth man is Nilsson. 



40 ELGA LAKE. 

vening, besides, on all sorts of pretexts at other 
times; for instance, if you eat a mouthful of 
salmon, it is a positive rule that you must drink a 
glass of "brandivin," and if a friend meets you, 
another glass must be taken to greet him. 

The Rob Roy was put on a cart, and amid bows 

and smiles (and perhaps one sigh from Miss K ) 

the farmer started his horse for Sulveeka, and 
acted as driver himself, partly as a compliment to 
me, and partly to have a thorough good gossip 
with everybody we met by the way, and a sort of 
general lecture to the villagers by the beautiful 
Elga Lake, on which we now launched the little 
canoe. The waves from a head-wind dashed so 
often over the deck that I resolved at last to 
land at a great saw-mill, observed not far off, and 
get a cork to bung the mast-hole, also some 
bread to stop the manifest gap in the captain's 
own personal hull. At once a crowd of workmen 
rushed around the new visitor, and I was startled 
by a voice, "Goot maw — ning, Capiteen." This 
man had seen the boat some days before, and as I 
had told the officer of the Landvehr I was also a 
little in the same line as himself, the title and 
rank of the paddling Briton were already known 
at Elga. We sent a lad for two-pennyworth of 
bread, but, meantime, the master of* the works sent 
a pressing invitation to breakfast at his house, 
while his son, a gentlemanly youth, came to urge 
the request, and the big dog Hector said the same. 
There was a doubt as to yielding, till a young lady, 
a sister, smiling and fair, added her entreaty, and 
that, of course, settled the matter. Then we were 
escorted to a fine large wooden chateau, where 



PIKE AND CREAM. 41 

Mr. Rhodin soon established the hungry paddler 
beside a dainty meal of pike and strawberries and 
cream. (N.B. Third breakfast, already, to-day.) 
All the family and the " gouvernante," she speak- 
ing English perfectly, had a chat about my tour, 
my boat, and my ideas of Sweden ; and when at 
last the time came for a start, the numerous work- 
men lined the wharf as we dashed out ; thoroughly 
prepared to face a strong " sou'-easter," from 
which, indeed, there was no escape. 

Among the other arrangements of the boat, I 
have a cork seat, nine inches square, which can be 
speedily bound round my waist as a life-buoy when 
a precaution of this kind may be necessary, but it 
had not yet been used in actual earnest. The 
native newspapers in one instance spoke of the 
canoe as (; being carried round my waist," and no 
doubt it is to this waist-belt of cork that they re- 
ferred, with a somewhat confused idea of the 
whole affair. An hour's hard pull on this rough 
water (with the pike and cream and strawberries), 
caused me to land and to sound the pumps, and 
the canoe had more water in than ever before or 
after. There were thirteen spongefuls, for it is by 
this I measured the water in the hold. After 
rounding a point, I perceived a boat tossing about 
with rather a helpless air, and w r as surprised to 
find a woman rowing in it all alone; so we went 
rapidly to assist her. But she was emulous of my 
speed, and could not so easily be caught, and by 
no means sought either help or sympathy ; nay, 
she excused herself for being beaten in the race 
because her boat was so large. Suddenly the wind 
dropped, and the water calmed as soon, so rapid 



42 SLUGGARD. 

are the changes from squalls to calms on these 
lakes ; and so I fished, sailing now with a leading 
wind to the pleasant, busy town of Arvika, where 
we rested the Sunday. 

A few hours' residence in a small place like this 
identifies a traveller, if he has arrived in an odd 
way, as I did. By eleven o'clock every boy and girl 
in Arvika * knew the face of the Englishman who 
came sailing in a Tcyak, and now walked about in 
a straw hat, genially smiling. The town was pretty 
to look at and dull to live in, and a number of 
tipsy men wandered about in the evening after 
church. Let us have a quiet walk through the 
wood, sweetly odorous of pine gum, and musical 
with insect hums. See there the busy ants track- 
ing a broad path over grass and ferns, bustling 
and jostling and struggling with tiny muscles, to 
bring home every one his load. Well might the 
wise man bid us all go to the ant to learn. The 
lesson is not only for the sluggard, or rather we 
are all sluggards compared with what we might 
be, and ought to be ; but did you ever see an idle 
ant ? This community of pigmies have a sort of 
Fleet Street of business in their ant-walks. The 
rustling of the leaves under their busy feet is quite 
audible in the silence . around. Each little atom, 
(as it seems to be) has yet a mind and a will and a 
plan, in its own small way. Every ant seems to 
run everywhere, and to try everything, until he 
finds some burden to take up, and then an hour is 
not too long to carry it right to the end. If he 
cannot find work below, he climbs up a tree. He 
tumbles three feet to the ground, rolls over, gets 
* This is the Oscarstadt of Hagelstan's map. 



A LITTLE BILL. 



4?> 



up and shakes himself, not a whit the worse, but at 
it again with vigour. Fancy an Alderman falling 
from the cross of St. Paul's in his way to the City,, 
and then after all arriving in good time at his office ! 

In this ant-world there is a crowd, but not con- 
fusion. There is activity, but not hurry. They 
are all intent on a future, and provident of the 
present. They help one another, and their path 
is homeward, with room for all to walk in it, yet 
it lies in a sure direction. A few minutes spent by 
an ant's nest is generally a good lesson of life, yes, 
and of morals. " Learn of her ways, and be wise." 

Night has come now, and as the moon sails out 
on the lake, there is soft music under the window, 
and gentle voices of girls singing very pretty 
Swedish hymns; and then all is soothed into the 
quiet of dark repose, except the prosy old watchman 
who intones the hour -through his nose, or blows so 
many bass notes, sounding the clock on his horn. 

Here is the hotel bill, merely as a specimen : — 

No. 6. 



1866. 




11/8. 


Afton, I 61 


12. 


Kaffe .. 




Middags, i 61 .. 




Tobak .. 




Afton 


13. 


Caffe .. 




Logi 




Frukost . . 



.. Ed 


•91 ore 




.. -50 „ 




. 1-16 „ 




• 'SO „ 




• -50 „ 




'. 2-50 „ 




• -50 „ 


Rd 


6-47 



Quiteros Arvika, 13 Aug. 1866. T. ¥. W. 

A rix-dollar is worth about 14c?. English, and 
contains 100 ore, so the whole amount is under 8s. 



( 44 ) 



CHAPTER V. 



A Hundred Lunch eons — Luxury — Wake Up — Wait for 
Events — John Bull at Home — Vermland — Model Wife 
— Chat in Latin — Manners. 

It was a lovely morning when we left Arvika, 
and with all energy renewed after the Sunday's 
rest. A gauzy haze around the dawn melted away 
into a clear blue sky, and the lovely Elga Lake 
was rippleless. No sounds came from the shores, 
no singing fron^ the woods, and as I quietly 
skimmed along, even the ticking of my watch was 
easily heard : for the hollow cedar boat probably 
acted like the body of a piano or guitar. 

The light-houses on the lakes and inland la- 
goons are sometimes very small. A mere glass 
box upon a stand, of which you can touch the 
top, is placed on a jutting rock ; and the village 
lamplighter comes to put it to rights in the even- 
ing, while during the day the crew of the Rob 
Roy land and stretch their legs beside the tower. 

Here there were most inviting islands for the 
bivouac. We could have lunched a hundred 
times, and never within sight of the same place 
twice. But in the sole dinner I did take, a pheno- 
menon appeared which was not at all picturesque ; 
for, in preparing my cookery, the spirit-lamp ex- 
ploded, and nearly burned some of the crew, but 
we soon made a good fire of wood, and it- went on 



A HUNDRED LUNCHEONS. 



45 



bravely burning, long after 
left the dining-room." 



; the 



gentlemen 



had 




PHAROS MINOR. 



"Steward!" " Ye?, Sir." "You may take 
away the things." The spoon is long and narrow, 
so that you can eat an egg with it, and for stirring 
up the coffee or soup or chocolate this weapon is 
useful enough ; but practically the fork was never 
in requisition, and that end of the implement may 
be regarded as a fond conceit. 

As the scenery was so fine, and the pleasant day 
was all before us, and no halting-place had been 
settled for the night, we devoted an hour or two 
to make some experiments as to the speed of the 



46 LUXURY. 

boat, and other like matters which a perfect calm 
is favourable for ascertaining. 

It appeared, then, that in paddling well but 
steadily there were 100 double strokes (that is, 
one on each side) made in five minutes ; which, 
at the speed of six miles an hour, would give 200 
double strokes in a mile. The zig-zag course of 
the Rob Eoy here is marked in Map 2, where you 
see that the shores of the lake gradually approach 
until we enter the Glava Fjole, its waters curling 
under a delicious breeze from the north-west, and 
so enabling me for the first time to set sail — a 
most grateful pleasure. 

As the rocks grew higher and nearer, and the 
sun more hot, so the breeze also increased, until 
we scudded away at a famous pace, while I stretched 
at full length, with my head leaning back on the 
adjustable backboard (the comfort of one's life in 
a canoe), and my feet spread out on deck, and 
bright clear waves lapping my hands now and 
then, or daringly kissing my cheek. 

The luxury of this rest in motion, after the 
hard tugs against the east wind last week, will 
always be remembered by the passengers of the 
canoe. 

To vary the amusement, I bent my course here 
and there, into this bay on the right, and round 
that cape on the left ; now chasing a duck that 
kept diving and diving before me, and again 
running close to some little village, where all the 
folks came out^but I managed to pass through 
them without even once allowing my face to be 
seen. Their account of the phantom craft that 
passed them I. should very much like to hear. 






^>lala r 



o 



E 



Z 

%! 



^ 



<^ 



.** 






N 



doping 



ROUTE OF THE ROB ROY 

IN 

NORWAY, SWEDEN & THE BALTIC, 

mdicatedija dotted line 

WITH THE PRINCIPAL ADJOINING RIVERS, LAKES, 

& TOWNS, NAMED IN THE BOOK. 
. i 

The rectangular part enclosed uu a Izrw ! 

will de fown/l owcu larger Scale ire Map 4. p. 6%. 



ENGLISH MILES. 



Tin cent Brooks, lith. London 



a- 









/%' 


\ Cklcu'igerl. 








u 






1 Jabogai 








CHRISTIAN!*' 


/ 










< 




^KT 
















| Jhiqu Sjl 








k 








Kjfe 








i % 
















i\f? A-Kfc 








X 








•/f&*#K 














' \ 1 








o 






/ 
i 


><, 


^ i 




£ 








i \^, 




r^X 


Christinehani 



/? I// 

i *\* 



^.^fioteborg 



.w 



Arbogji 



D 



A r* ^ 



'"Wadstena, 



'/J /if 



N 



ROUTE OF THE ROB ROY 
NORWAY, SWEDEN & THE BALTIC, 

indicated l)ya dotted line 

WITH THE PRINCIPAL ADJOININC RIVERS, LAKES. 
& TOWNS, NAMED IN THE BOOK. 



The rectangular pari enclosed ' iruculirw — 
will be, founder. 



WAKE UP. 47 

The work of a long summer's clay, even with its 
rests and detours and many stoppages, had brought 
me thirty miles on my route, and as the sun 
drooped, so died away the wind ; but the water 
closing now to the breadth of a river, with a steady 
current, still carried us on through the Bjorno 
Sje, the Lake of the Bears. 

Over the waving weeds, fast by the dipping 
bushes, great rocks above us, and health and peace 
within, it was all in a mellow light of gloaming, 
such as that picture shows us, " With the Stream." 

I fished the while — as comfortable in my boat 
as you are on your sofa — use makes it so. At last 
I was lazy, and so were the fish, for they jumped 
only half-way to the fly, and seemed to lollop 
about for play, and did not " mean business." We 
were all so pleasant and comfortable — the canoe, 
the fisherman, and the fish — that by consent it 
was agreed to " make believe," on all sides, until, 
I do believe, our coxswain nodded in the sultry 
air, and then he fell fast asleep. 

At this time the Eob Boy was borne on the 
smooth current, stern-foremost, side-foremost, any 
way ; all discipline w T as unloosed, and no one was 
on the watch, as we drifted in among the long- 
stakes, which were leaning down as they bent to 
the stream, and murmuring at the pressure with an 
audible thrill. 

Suddenly I was aroused by a tremendous tug 
at my fishing-line. In an instant it was "all hands 
on deck," and a rattling of paddles and spars and 
a clattering of shoes. What a huge salmon it 
must be w T e are catching. It has pulled the whole 
boat round ! Haul away cheerily. 



48 WAIT FOR EVENTS. 

Ah ! my hook had caught a tree ! 

Again the lake narrowed between fine cliffs into 
a flowing neck of bright clear water, and the river 
stream bore the canoe gently on until evening, 
when the mirthful lass at the ferry told me I could 
sleep at a house on the knoll above. 

No other person is in sight as we draw to shore, 
and in the earlier days I should have been anxious 
about how to manage alone. But experience 
proves that a few minutes always brings some one 
within hail, in such places, if any one house is 
visible ; and the infinite variety of ways in which 
apparent difficulties solve themselves by a little 
patience, and keeping " your weather eye open," 
really constitute one of the amusing characteristics 
of the voyage. 

Lazy after long sailing (which stiffens you con- 
siderably, and indisposes for more exertion), I 
waited as the sun went down, and the cool silent 
stream flowed by, and nobody came, and nothing 
happened. There seemed to be a spell over all of 
listless inaction. Then I beckoned to the pretty 
ferry girl, and she rowed over, laughing. "I am 
an Englishman," said I. She told me " Osterman 
could speak English." "Osterman — Osterman!" 
I repeated ; " what can be the meaning of Oster- 
man ?" And then to her, " Tell me plainly, miss, 
what is Osterman ? Is it a man fishing for fresh- 
water oysters?" She answered, " Osterman is 
just Osterman ;'*' and very soon he came on the 
scene himself — a fine young fellow, who spoke 
English well, and had 400 hooks with him, and a 
lacl to set the night-lines. He objected at first to 
delay his fishing, or to let the boy carry my boat ; 



JOHN BULL AT HOME. 49 

but persuasion prevailed. If it had not done so it 
would have been a surprise to ine, and the first 
time of failure in securing help by good temper 
and kind words. 

We carried the canoe to a private house, and 
she was soon locked up, and the key of the barn 
in my pocket. This mode of establishing the 
Rob Roy in night quarters has merits and disad- 
vantages ; although it is secure it is troublesome, 
for over and over the key has to be produced for 
new comers, who enter humbly, cap in hand, to 
ask for a sight of the "leety bote." When I was 
dining a man came up-stairs, and in the shyest 
manner entered into conversation, each of us 
talking quite independently of the other, but pro- 
bably edified, without any distinct allusion to 
each other's arguments. He turned out to be 
the proprietor of the house. How modest, how 
courteous, how gentle was this plain cottier, 
and how few people (I could not help thinking) 
would have been so delicately attentive if, on 
coming back to their house in England, they 
found a stranger comfortably eating their best 
fare ! 

Desperate sticklers we may be for Old England 
and everything English; but repeated lessons 
abroad have at length forced me to confess thart, 
in comparison with most of these "outlandish 
folks," we English are often very boorish ; and the 
conviction of this may well make me behave in 
foreign lands with the modesty of one who feels 
his countrymen have much to learn. 

The fire-place here was a triangular hearth, 
about the height of a chair, and in the middle of 

E 



50 YEEMLAND. 

the room. It was arched over so as to form a 
chimney, and a sketch of it will be found on page 
119 (fig. 1). This excellent arrangement is one 
of the best to be seen for comfort and convenience, 
because, while the fire is in fact open, it has still 
a snug chimney corner, and you can cook on it or 
sit by it without having to stoop far. The man, 
so demure and attentive, wore a leather apron, and 
at first we thought he was a blacksmith, but it was 
soon seen that all the working men wear these 
aprons to protect their knees and bodies from the 
wear and tear of implements, as well as from 
rain.* The worthy host accepted a tract, and at 
once began reading it aloud, and half an hour 
afterwards we could hear him still going on, while 
his head was nodded, or thoughtfully shaken, as he 
seemed to feel the sense of the Swedish message 
from England. All this was in the district of 
Vermland, a region little seen by travellers, and 
seen, perhaps, by no one as the captain of the 
canoe saw it. Still you may see a bit of it on the 
Map opposite. But its fame is that of quaintness^ 
respectability, prejudice, patriotism, and open 
hospitality. Unawares, we had paddled into the 
Highlands of Sweden. 

Next day we had to charter a little waggon to 
c£rry the Rob Roy from this chain of waters to the 
end of an arm of the great Venern See, a splendid 
lake about 100 miles long, only less than the 
lakes Ladoga and Onega of European waters. We 

* Some of the schoolboys have leather kneecaps, and we 
noticed one little fellow with brass ends to his boots, which, 
no doubt, is a good plan for moderating papa's bill at the 
shoemaker's. 



MODEL WIFE. 51 

soon slung the canoe upon two ropes ; one of them 
was made of pig's hair, which is said to last a long 
time when used in rain and frost. The portage 
was seven or eight miles, and gave me a pleasant 
walk alongside the cart, the man mumbling his 
wonder all the time that the Herr would insist, 
upon walking along a road plashy and wet ; but 
stately trees and graceful ferns adorned it, and 
painter'^ glimpses through the forest and over the 
lakes. Then came we to Borgivik — full of smoke 
and din, with tilt-hammers worked by gushing 
water-wheels, and grimy Titans swaying brawny 
arms among the sparks and fire-flakes, as the 
ground quivered at each blow on the molten mass. 

I drove the cart with (apparent) boldness 
through a wondering crowd right up to the house 
of the proprietor of the works, Mr. Almquist, who 
received me with great courtesy, while his excel- 
lent wife appeared in the kitchen ruling the pastry 
and etceteras which are so numerous in Swedish 
cooking. 

I thought at first she was the cook, but when I 
gave her my wet things to be dried in a very 
matter-of-fact way (as one must push a little), she 
took them with so much readier politeness than 
the servant by her side, that I scarcely wondered 
afterwards to find her in the drawing-room play- 
ing Weber's Preciosa with a tasteful touch of the 
finger-board not at all spoiled by an hour or two 
at the " dresser." This is the sort of wife that it 
is happy for a traveller to visit. The lady and 
her husband may possibly read these lines — as 
many Swedes have promised to do — and let it be 
understood that the thanks of a wandering English- 

e 2 



52 CHAT IN LATIN. 

man are here conveyed to the courteous and hospi- 
table Vermlanders. 

Eolf and Bruno, the dogs, soon made friends 
with me ; but none of the family could speak Eng- 
lish or French, so my stock of Swedish being soon 
exhausted, we had to depend on mutual smiles ; 
until the amiable host pointed to a line in a phrase 
book, which said, " You are very welcome ;" and 
I answered by another, which said in Swedish, " I 
am exceedingly comfortable, and much obliged." 

However, Dr. Somebody came to tea, and we 
talked Latin with that circumlocutory elegance 
which a very slow remembrance of it involves, 
like hauling water out of a very deep well, with 
very little in the bucket when it comes up, and 
not much at the bottom. 

I had broken my watch-glass, and they had not 
one small enough in the village shop, but we pro- 
cured a large one, fitting about as well as a saucer ; 
and, after some experiments, I discovered that, by 
putting a piece of gauze * over this great glass, 
the watch-dial could be seen perfectly, and yet 
the hands were protected. This may be considered 
a useful invention — at any rate it was so for me, 
until next day a man said — a stranger, too, " Give 
me your watch, and I will return it with a glass 
to-morrow at half-past five." We could not but 
trust the honest Swede, and faithfully the watch 
arrived, with an excellent patent glass upon it, 
which has been thumped and bumped ever since, 
and, indeed, is even cracked, but is still service- 
able.t 

* Brought for a mosquito veil, but no mosquito ever came, 
t For boating, the watch ought to be carried in a small 



MANNERS. 53 

Everything in this house was substantial, airy, 
clean, punctual, and good. The boys were well 
behaved. ! The visitors listened with smiles to our 
mangled Latin, the lady beamed with benevolent 
motherly kindness, and all for a strange traveller, 
who had no possible claim upon their time and 
attention but that he was a stranger — and had a 
canoe. In Norway and Sweden all who are seated 
at dinner rise at the end, and bow to the host, 
and thank him for his hospitality. As for break- 
fast, it is taken as a peripatetic meal — the viands 
being attacked from front and rear and flanks, 
as you cut in and snap a bit, and then trudge 
about the room. It is an uncomfortable fashion, 
and more especially so in an inn, where a dozen 
heavy-heeled men, with hoarse voices and champ- 
ing jaws, stump round and round on the wooden 
floor, all talking, eating, and smoking in inde- 
pendent circles about the table. 

Tea is sometimes taken at night ; and what do 
you think of the accompaniment of a plate of 
thick pea-soup instead of muffins ? 

pocket near the collar-bone, where it is the least likely to get 
smashed, and is most likely to be kept dry when you have 
to jump into the water or to swim. 



( 54 ) 



CHAPTER VI. 

Caught in a Squall — Lost! Lost! Lost! — Cholera Ward 
— Alone in a Lantern — A Strange Duet — On Deck — 
French Sailors — Yankee — Cockney — Cauliflowers. 

Early next day the whole family and the me- 
chanics came with me to the water, and the Rob 
Eoy shoved off into a squally sea; for it may 
really be called a sea, this noble lake of Venern. 
All hats were off, and warm adieux wished " happy 
travel " to the little boat, no doubt the smallest 
craft that had ever ventured on this great lake. 
For an hour or two the course was among land- 
locked bays and high hills, with dense wood to 
the water's edge, and we did not feel the strength 
of the breeze there ; but, on facing round the last 
lonely wooded point, the white waves, and angry 
clouds, and thick drizzling rain, show that full 
steam must be put on if we mean to reach Carlstad 
to-night, and I must reach it, for letters are to be 
there, and my packet of reserve provisions. 

Three grand points I had settled for this tour ; 
to paddle on Venern, on the Baltic, and on the 
Great Belt in Denmark. Here was number one 
feat approaching fulfilment, but a more unpromis- 
ing day could not have opened. Wind, ram, and 
fog, seldom you have the three at once ; but each 
of them now was vigorous in opposing me, and 
any one of them alone would have been reason 



CAUGHT IN A SQUALL. 55 

enough to defer the attempt Therefore I landed 
where I could ponder half-an-hour, with a cigar, 
and consult with the boatswain and mate over our 
chart ; and the question was solemnly debated, " Is 
it not foolish to go on with thirty miles before me 
in this whistling mist, and on this huge lake ?" 

A black squall then varied the dull grey of the 
horizon, and I had to land for shelter while its 
fury was spent on the rocks above me. Bright 
sun followed, and then came another portentous 
cloud, so I resolved to dine at the very next 
house to be met ; but it was a miserable hut, and 
the poor man in it had no bread. Things looked 
awkward now, with so much delay and so long a 
day's work to be done, so we made for another 
island, hard by the narrow strait of Asunda, where 
was the last house to be met for many hours. In 
this poor fisher's hut we found two sailors and a 
rosy-faced boy, eating fish and potatoes with their 
hands, and a woman sat by with a very dirty baby, 
which she covered with kisses. I produced my 
little packet of sugar and gave the baby some, 
and mamma soon got me some bread, and I 
joined in the wooden bowl of potatoes, and cooked 
my coffee by their fire, and sketched, and gave her 
some of the finest rice from Fortnum and Mason's, 
and let off a wax match, and gave two to a boy, 
and, in fact, made myself generally agreeable. 
This was the first instance in which we found a 
man who could not read ; still he managed to de- 
cipher the obverse of a coin, and so we departed 
with thanks to all, but without kissing the child. 

Then into the tumbling waves, aha! How 
cheery the motion is with a dash and a rush, and 



56 lost! lost! lost! 

the sea-bird's scream aloft, and the black rocks 
white with foam around ! What other mode of 
travel is so pleasant as this ? 

The numerous islands were soon so perplexing 
that I had to land, first upon Sande Isle, and 
then on several others, climbing each time some 
lonely peak to see where I ought to go ; for the 
islands are in the way of your seeing them, just 
as you " cannot see the forest for the trees." 

The thick undergrowth and slippery moss made 
it tiring and wet work to climb. The panorama 
from the top, too, was not cheering ; and once when 
I had settled on the course, and observed the wind 
to steer by, and then came down, the wind had 
actually veered eight points in that ten minutes 
(as was stated to be the case by a sea-captain, 
next day), so I was utterly puzzled, and in fact 
started quite in a wrong direction, which would 
have led me forty miles to the east. There was 
nothing for it but to climb once more, for it was 
absolutely necessary to find out the island of 
Onson among the numerous others in the Katt 
Fjord ; and yet the only point that was unmistak- 
able was the headland at the end of Hammaro, 
which stood out sharp on the far horizon of indigo 
blue. Suddenly, and to our great joy, a sun ray 
broke forth and showed a white puff from a 
steamer's funnel, so I concluded instantly that 
must be the direction of Carlstad ; and so it was. 

By careful steering, and after numerous altera- 
tions '* of my intended course, I happened to go 
right, and the sun at length overcame the dark 
clouds around him, shining bright through the 
fog, and showed me lanA only seven or eight miles 



CHOLERA WARD. 57 

away, but dead to windward. This was a hard 
pull, yet when I reached the lighthouse and 
climbed up to it nobody was there ; so it was of 
no use to shout. 

We therefore started again, and scrambled on 
somehow to the mouth of one of the branches of 
the great Klar river, one of the largest in Sweden ; 
and then in a blazing hot sun that made the 
marshes reek a pestilent air, we stemmed the 
current slowly for an hour, amid thousands and 
thousands of timber logs. 

Carlstad was burned down last year, and cholera 
had broken out among the poor people housed 
temporarily on the flat shore, so we were urged 
to avoid the place as exceedingly dangerous. 
It was, therefore, with no small pleasure that I 
found a little steamer alongside the quay. For 
variety's sake let us put the dialogue in the sen- 
sation novel style. 

" When do you start ?" said I. 

" At six to-morrow. " 

" Eastward ?" 

"Yes." 

" Will you take me?" 

" Come along, sir !" 

So the Eob Koy was on its deck in a trice, and 
a messenger brought my " reserve prog " and a 
letter from home — a better feast ! Good kind 
Captain Dahlander came forward with "How do 
you do? are you wet?" "Yes, very." "Then 
change instantly — this is no place to get a chill 
in ;" and in a few minutes I had his big greatcoat 
around me and a stiff glass of grog inside, and felt 
all the better for my paddle of twelve hours, and 



58 ALONE IN A LANTERN. 

forty English miles of watery wandering on 
Venern. The glass vessel he poured this oppor- 
tune brandy from was shaped like a dog, with 
its tail for a handle, and the fiery fluid came from 
its mouth. Many days afterwards we had another 
pull at the tail of the captain's dog.* 

Next day, after visiting several ports, I decided 
to land on the island of Bromo, where a steamer 
would pass at night, and might take me to the 
West Goth a Canal. The canoe was put in a shed, 
and we had a long walk in a wood, and then in- 
spected the large glass-works on this curious 
island; and just after we came there the wood- 
work of the old roof, built sixty years ago, caught 
fire, and a great bustle was the result. 

The evening was cold, and it was tedious work 
to wait seven hours for a steamer ; but the man 
gave me the key of the lighthouse, and I rigged 
up my kitchen and made coffee there, and then 
put on two complete suits of clothes to keep me 
warm, and paced the little harbour quay until the 
stars came out. A brilliant meteor shot across 
the sky, and reminded me that in this particular 
week of each year a meteoric epoch comes with 
shoals of shooting stars. Mounting into the lan- 
tern of the lighthouse, I sat by the camphine lamp 
both for heat and light, reading and sketching and 
thinking through the midnight hours, with a lonely 
feeling and anxious expectancy of a steamer's 
whistle in each gust of wind. At length footsteps 
heard below showed there was some other pas- 
senger. He soon began to whistle as he paced 
back and forward, stamping his feet. To console 
* See post, p. 138, with a portrait of the spirited animal. 



A STRANGE DUET. 



59 



him, and for company's sake, I whistled a second 
to his tunes ; and thus we went on until our 




whole stock of Italian and native airs was ex- 
hausted by singing and whistling in a strange duet, 
one performer standing on the pier and the other 
aloft in the lantern. 

The steamer came, and it was coolly passing us 
by altogether, but my comrade hailed them long 



60 OX DECK. 

and loud and often, and they came back grumbling, 
but not sorry to hear there was an English pas- 
senger, though they shouted out that all the 
cabins were quite full. "Never mind," said I, 
" the deck will do for me." Anything, to be done 
with the lantern, where I was so tired and cramped. 
The deck was piled with three tiers of herring 
barrels — not a very savoury cargo, but I recollect 
a far worse one when I went from Valentia to the 
Balearic Isles with 355 live pigs on deck. For, 
say that each pig squeaks but once in five minutes 
— a very moderate allowance surely — and that 
a good squeak lasts sixty seconds at least ; then 
you have the continuous squeaking of twelve pigs 
together for twenty-four hours — not counting the 
grunts or the general odour. 

It was a curious passage this, from Bromo, as I 
sat close to the funnel, and all was dark, except 
when the furnace doors opened, and their warm 
redness glared on the hot stokers, and on the 
moving beams and cranks, till the scene was 
quenched again in darkness ; but the rattling still 
went on. One side * of my face was so hot that I 
had to screen it, and the other side was so cold in 
the draught that I had to screen that too. You 
will find, however, that if you are in good health, a 
night spent thus on deck passes, after all, far 
better than if from illness or anxiety you toss 
about through wakeful hours, even in the most 
comfortable bed. 

There is a dreamy poetry about the sea at 

* " Sidehead," Amerlce — and why not ? though we Britons 
have only foreheads and blockheads. 



FRENCH SAILOES. 61 

night, with the illumined heaven above, that 
seems to sway all the stars to and fro among the 
ropes, though it is only the vessel that is rolling 
gently. 

Then quiet thoughts of home and home things 
circle in the mind, and the engine keeps on its 
ceaseless music, saying every moment over and 
over what seemed to me like " blong-italong-ee- 
thang." 

The steering from the lake into the canal at 
night in a fog, and through so narrow a channel 
that only one foot was to spare on either side, 
surprised and delighted me. But these Swedes 
and Norwegians are all good sailors. I recollect 
meeting our Baltic fleet at Copenhagen when it 
had cruised six months during the Crimean war. 
The French fleet came in, too, and the middies 
and sailors soon hired every possible quadruped at 
all resembling a horse, and we went scampering 
over the fields for thirty miles with that uproarious 
enjoyment which sailors have ashore. Good 
authority then informed me that the French ships 
were as well built and equipped as ours, and their 
gunnery not inferior; but that it was in a certain 
kind of weather where the difference was seen at 
once between the nations. When snow, sleet, 
and rain filled the air, and driving fog darkened 
the murky night, and the sea and sky seemed one 
black hazy mass, then the French admiral always 
signalled, " Let the English vessels lead." Buoys, 
beacons, and lighthouses had all been removed by 
the enemy; but the Orkney, and Shetland, and 
North Sea pilots found their way still. The fleet 
did not lose one ship, though often the three- 



62 YANKEE. 

deckers had only a yard of water under their keels 
in drizzly fogs, such was the seamanship of the 
Baltic pilots. 

As at this period of the journey the packet of 
excellent biscuits in my "reserve luggage " be- 
came less bulky, for they were more consumed, 
there was room left for a few little souvenirs of 
the voyage. Here is a pretty bag we have brought 
back. It is a slip of white birch bark, soft and 
smooth, like satin paper, and bent into an oval 
shape. By a neat handle you can carry it away 
full of fresh raspberries, sparkling with cold dew, 
and bursting with luscious sweetness, all for the 
sum of one halfpenny. 

Here is a batch of Swedish newspapers, each of 
them describing the Rob Roy; but we know all 
about her already. 

Here is a small volume, in Swedish, called 
" The Little American " — the first time we have 
observed the i: greatest nation, sir, on the face of 
the earth, sir," propound that their language is 
not " English," however true that may be in cases, 
and however just may be their right to call it 
"American." For this blue-book is a sort of 
school primer, intended to teach the Danes how 
to pronounce the United-Statesian language, and 
perhaps we English may have a lesson, too. 

In one column of each page is the Danish word 
or phrase ; and in another the same English words 
written with Danish letters; and in the third 
column these are written again in Danish letters, 
as they are to be pronounced; but we will put 
English letters instead, and the first column may 
be omitted. 



COCKNEY. 63 

(1.) George has been punished Dschaardsch has bin pon- 
by his father. nisch'd bei hihs fadher. 

( 2.) Amely's shoes are not Amm'lih's schuhs ahr naott * 
clean. klihn. 

(3.) Oh, joy! huzza! the Oh, dschei! hoosae ! dhe pless- 
pleasure. jur. 

(4.) Churchyard key. Tschortschjard kih. 

(5.) Geography cheese. Dschioggraefii Tschihs. 

(6.) Stay a little. Steh ae littel. 

(7.) Your nightcab and boot- Juhr neichtkoepp and bunt- 
jack, dschjaekk. 

(8.) Waiter, the tinder-box. Huehter, dhe tinder-bokks. 

Sweden and America have the largest lucifer- 
match manufactories in the world ; so we may 
infer from the last phrase on the list that the 
book is rather ancient; and the word"Arnely" 
in No. 2, and " ae littel " in No. 6, indicate an 
American error ; while the errors in No. 7 show 
that he was very careless. 

But, after all, this book is not so bad as the 
wretched phrase-book sold in London when you 
ask for the best for learning Danish from, and 
which as usual says all you don't care to say,, 
and ends by an elaborate list of proverbs, such 
as " The tailor makes the man," and " The early 
bird picks up the first worm ; " the very last being 
" All's well that ends well," which this book does 
not. 

Let those, then, who chide the roving paddler 
because he wantonly strays where he does not 
know the tongue — and there are some who would 
not have us unmoor the canoe until its school- 
master is a universal linguist — let them club their 
wise heads together, and their learned tongues, 
and give the voyaging world a phrase-book worthy 



64 CAULIFLOWERS. 

of the name. The Eob Eoy does not want it, but 
it would be a good thing to do. 

Some years ago three of us being in Copen- 
hagen, and all hungry, we sat down in a restaurant 
to dine, but the bill of fare was utterly incompre- 
hensible ; so we agreed to order the dish which had 
the longest name. This being selected, the waiter 
was directed to bring one portion for each of us. 
Time went, but nothing came. Other people 
ordered, ate, and left the place, and our hunger 
was keener every moment, until at length the 
white-aproned " kypare " brought in a great tray 
with three huge covered dishes, which were duly 
placed before us — highly expectant of a treat. 
When the covers were removed, lo ! there were 
three dressed cauliflowers ! 



( 05 ). 



CHAPTER TIL 



Ladies' Locks — Tailoring — Canoe Chat — Whispers — 
Motala Strom — London Scottish E.Y. — Charming 
Family — Lake Yetter — For England — Monitors — 
Sister Craft — The Gunboat — Morning Call. 

Just as half-past two was "belled" on our little 
steamer, the dawn appeared, linking the new day 
to the past evening, and making one glad to find 
that the great World was not too sleepy to keep 
turning round. 

One after another passengers came up from 
below, each more frowsy-looking than the other, 
and all surprised to find a little canoe added to 
the occupants of the deck. 

The steamer's swell rushed along the canal 
banks, and bent down the tall green reeds, while 
the waves burst with a splash among the bushes, 
and chased the little sea-sparrows from their night 
haunts, chirping angrily. 

The locks were always opened by women, who 
worked famously, though it looked odd enough to 
see young lasses, with great crinolines, perched 
high aloft, and turning the winch handles. I got 
ashore and helped them, partly for exercise, and 
partly for gallantry. 

As morning went on, the country girls came to 
sell fresh raspberries in pretty baskets of birch 
bark, and butter, and woodcocks. I never saw 

F 



6Q TAILORING. 

a more pleasant set of fellows than these Swedes, 
aiid they all seem so glad to be thanked for their 
attentions. 

The steamers on the lakes, and rivers, and 
canals of Sweden are very well managed, and are 
comfortable, though their dimensions are neces- 
sarily limited by the size of the locks to be passed 
through on the canals. The stewardess (" Made- 
moiselle " you must recollect to call her) is emi- 
nently civil, and so is her aide — " Lina " you may 
safely call her, for Caroline is as frequently the 
name as Mary is with us. A neat bill of fare and 
good things upon it invite you to order freely 
much, with very little to pay. 

Sometimes pic-nic parties avail themselves of 
the frequent passing to and fro of these convenient 
tidy little craft, and a dozen ladies and gentlemen 
come aboard the steamer for a breakfast, which 
lasts until the boat stops again, some ten miles 
away, at the next lock. 

My macintosh cape having had various rents 
and grievances in it, the time was opportune to 
3iiake a new garment from a piece of leather 
cloth prudently stored in my reserve luggage. 

An agreeable fellow-passenger helped this bit 
; of tailoring, and we first made a pattern from a 
newspaper; and having improved it to the most 
fashionable shape, the cloth itself was cut out — 
a more serious matter. The new robe fitted ad- 
mirably ; it was sure to do so, for it was only a 
square piece with a hole for the neck, and the 
copyright (of figure 2 opposite) is not reserved ; 
so any dandy may wear it in Pall Mall. 

But this sternly simple garment did excellent 



CANOE CHAT. 



67 



service in places where there was nobody to quiz 
it, and at times when all observers would gladly 
have shared its shelter. 




Meanwhile our crew really must have a snooze, 
~the last forty-eight hours of waking having been 
rather a strain on our energy, so the starboard 
watch of the Bob Boy are all piped into their 
hammocks, while you and the people on deck will 
liave a little chat. 

It may be frequently remarked how often 
foreigners speak loudly to you, when you do not 
appear to understand their tongue in the usual 
tone. They mistake ignorance for deafness. But 
at the " Borrullup," the marriage-feast described 
further on, there was one very communicative 
man, who always addressed me in a very low 
whisper, though he spoke loudly enough to other 
people. The philosophy of this modification to 

F 2 



68 WHISPERS. 

increase the facility of intercourse I could not 
understand. 

Another thing ; foreigners conversing together 
will sometimes sink their voices into almost a 
whisper, when you may be sure they are talking 
about " you," and it is impossible then not to over- 
hear their words (they are not spoken in private) ; 
whereas, if they kept to the usual degree of voice r 
which, by the way, is loud and harsh in the North, 
the whole of the talk would pass unnoticed as a 
universal jargon. 

All the time of this foregoing gossiping inter- 
lude you have indulged in about other people, it 
must be remembered that the captain of the canoe 
is fast asleep in his hammock — that's why the pen 
has run on while the paddle was still. 

Meantime the West Gotha Canal has led us on 
to Lake Viken, which is very pretty, I believe ; 
for my own remembrance of the place is only of a 
dream there, wherein a gigantic paddle was swayed 
to and fro by a monster having one eye, and that 
was the dazzling light of Bromo. But our steamer 
has now glided along into Lake Vettern, so we are 
thoroughly awake, and sober sense resumes her 
throne. 

This Vettern lake is quite a sea in size, for though 
not so broad as the Venern, it is about eighty mile* 
long, as may be seen on Map 2. There are ninety 
tributary streams to swell its clear waters and 
only one exit for all the Motala river. Keport 
says that the rise and fall of the water in the lake 
coincides with that at Geneva, and that both are 
unaccountable. Crossing the Vettern, we are at 
pretty Vadstena, where the Mayor called on me 



LONDON SCOTTISH R.V. 69 

■(on the Eob Eoy, I fancy), saying, "You come 
here when and where to go ? " then again, in- 
quiringly, "On beesness?" "Yes," said I; "on 
business, to see your very nice town ; " so I took a 
pinch of snuff from his box, and told him that kind 
was called "Prince's Mixture." 

A splendid Aurora lit up the sky at night. Is 
this not the grandest sight to be seen on earth, 
with a perfect sense of security all the time? 

Next day I hired a vehicle to drive about 
twelve miles to Kyleberg, where an old friend of 
mine has fixed his home — a Scotchman born in 
Sweden. It was rather venturesome to alight at 
the door without any previous warning ; but in 
Sweden people are as hospitable as the Highland 
chiefs could be in olden days, and Mr. Axel Dick- 
son received his sudden guest in the warmest 
manner, speaking with the strong accent of his 
Scottish ancestry, and grasping my hand with the 
powerful clutch of his own ; and what thai is one 
may conceive when it is mentioned that in our 
London Scottish corps Mr. Dickson was the "pivot 
man " of No. 1 Kilt Company, and was, perhaps, 
the only man in that corps (or any other in 
London, indeed) who could take up two Enfield 
rifles by the muzzles and hold them, one in each 
hand, at full arm's length, with the butts extended. 

Kyleberg is pronounced Chilliberch, with the 
first " ch " as in children, and the second guttural 
" ch " as in the words Loch Lochy, which are 
unutterable by Cockney lips. Our host's fine 
mansion here is a specimen of what taste and 
skill can do when they direct a good long purse. 

There is the Scotch steward — Mr. Pennvcuik, 



70 CHARMING FAMILY. 

from Cupar and Angus — talking Swedish like a 
native, but lie " canna mak up his mind jist yet ,y 
(fifteen years) as to which of the Svenska damsels 
ought to share his home. There, too, is the sleek 
prize bull " Marksman," who bore away the gold 
medal from all Sweden, and whose babies sell for 
5/. each where good calves are in demand. 

Such a place — an oasis in the rougher life around 
— was just the spot to spend my quiet Sunday. 
Mr. Dickson reads prayers every morning in 
Swedish ; and on Sundays the neighbours do not 
object to come under his pastoral charge for an 
hour. But he ministers again there in English, 
and Mrs. Dickson reads for us in the evening ; so 
that Swedes and Britons all have their share of 
Sunday. 

It was a really pleasant time with this charming 
family, where refinement and kindness are happily 
combined; and I left the place not likely to forget 
my visit to Kyleberg, even after the packet of 
Scotch oat-cake and the pot of marmalade, 
thoughtfully given to me at parting, had been 
finished in the luxury of several bivouacs on less 
favoured spots. 

Eeturning to Vadstena, we found the interest 
about the little Eob Boy had permeated the place. 
There was a meeting of gentlemen to discuss the 
proposal for lighting their town with gas,* and 

* The use of gas is rapidly spreading in Sweden. English 
coals can be had here as cheaply as in the south of England, 
for they come in vessels that take back wood. Indeed, 
English coal is used on all the steamers and railways, even 
where millions of trees are waiting to be cut down. At 
Helsins;borg Ave noticed a man disjoins; coal out of the bank 



DO i; 



LAKE VETTEEN. 71 

there they asked when the Jcyak was to start, 
that they might not miss the sight. It was 
answ r ered that her captain only deferred his start 
until the end of the meeting, as a friend of his was 
there. In five minutes, then, the gas matter was 
settled. All the twenty-four councillors agreed, 
and the contract was signed, that the canoe might 
be seen under way. 

Meanwhile the boat had been laid out for a 
thorough overhaul and examination, this being 
the first "lawful" clay on which she was dry 
enough to do this. The ship's carpenter duly 
reported that, with the exception of four ribs 
broken on the Vinger See, she was perfectly stanch 
and sound ; and so we launched her with confi- 
dence on Lake Vettern, under a parting cheer 
from the assembly on the pier — a cheer being a 
novelty in the programme, which was no doubt 
raised from British lungs. The water here was 
cold and clear and deep, and the bright waves 
played round the little boat, under a soft warm 
breeze, enlivening enough, though not in a favour- 
able direction, until we had reached a point where 
I entered the Motala river, and landed for a few 
minutes' rest, and to set sail and run before the 
wind. 

Sparkle on, waves, and thou breeze behind 
us blow into the open bay, where even now my 
night quarters can be seen afar off. 

This was, indeed, a pleasant sail. The hotel at 
Motala was only a few yards from the lake ; but 
the number of people who had observed the Rob 

at the side of his house, and at the same time a fleet of 
English colliers was sailing past in the Sound. 



Cl FOR ENGLAKD. 

Roy approaching gave me a constant stream of 
visitors, respectful, though inquisitive to an unusual 
degree. 

The venerable landlady became fired with the 
desire to see the start next day. 

She leant upon my arm, walking to the water 
— a dame of lady-like mien, with that waxen 
imperishable tint of cheek which hale old age has 
sometimes — and you may defy paint to imitate 
this bloom. 

On the bridge a beggar accosted me, and I 
fairly started with surprise. The thing was so 
new — this was the first and last beggar we met in 
our tour. 

O rich England ! rouse up and relieve poor 
ragged Englishmen. The squalid poverty in our 
wealthy land is oppressive ; the fat riches in it 
are oppressive. Thousands of the poor in London 
never see a rich man's smile of sympathy, or hear 
his voice to cheer them. Thousands of rich men 
never see the misery of the poor, or hear their 
cry of hunger. The rich and poor among us are 
too distinct by class and locality. They may have 
liberty to live far apart as west from east; but 
cannot we urge by love, or must we force by law, 
the fulness of the one to help the wan emptiness 
of the other ? 

This highly respectable Svenske beggar, how- 
ever, pleaded in such gentlemanly tones that 
I gave him a great polygon of copper, which 
weighed heavy in my pocket, and would be too 
heavy for the canoe. The coin puzzled the man, 
and it puzzled his friends when he showed it to 
them, and he and they burst into merry laughter, 



MONITORS. 73 

for they thought it was a joke of the paddler — a 
grim joke, indeed, to play on a polite mendicant! 

The Motala river, as it rushes out of Vettern to 
run through a chain of lakes, and by devious ways 
to the Baltic, is seized upon at once, that it may 
yield some of its water-power to everybody on the 
banks, and so there is a network of barriers, dams, 
sluices, forces, falls, weirs, and rapids, with a cease- 
less splashing sound, and the rap-ap-ap of busy 
waterwheels, and clang of great hammers, and 
hoarse hissing of swift saws, all mingled with the 
hum and bustle of many men at work, an exceed- 
ingly interesting exhibition of picturesque in- 
dustry. 

The great ironworks of Motala we had visited 
with much curiosity ten years ago, but they have 
been largely improved and extended since that 
time. The new requirements of modern warfare 
are met by private energy in a great company like 
this at Motala, and there the massive plates are 
rolled for the Monitor steamers. Two of these 
were already afloat. The Motala company has 
another branch elsewhere, and a third at Norr- 
koping, where the third Monitor was seen just 
ready for launching, as will be described further 
on. The turret of one of the Monitors, to hold 
two guns, was set up in the yard, and the work- 
manship of the whole was admirable. In such 
work the managers have a rule not to hurry any 
of the men. They prefer that time should be 
spent, even more than what is reasonable, rather 
than have one stroke of the hammer hasty or 
neglected. When the Yankee Mianontomah came 
to Stockholm to astonish the Swedes, she was 



74 



SISTER CEAFT. 



received by their far better vessels ; for in iron- 
works, and with a Swedish engineer like Ericsson 
to direct them, Sweden ought not to be easily dis- 
tanced. 

Here also, we saw a Swedish gunboat, very like 
a canoe in shape ; indeed, the Rob Roy was carried 
into the building-yard and placed beside its enor- 
mous fellow of the waters, to the great amusement 
of the workmen and of myself. 

That this likeness between the iron giant and 




PAKVO COMPOXERE MAGNUM. 



the oaken pigmy was no mere fancy will be seen 
by a glance at the drawing ; from which it appears 
that the gunboat slopes down, fore and aft, from 
a higher centre, and is covered on deck, and so 



THE GUNBOAT. /O 

formed as to go through and under the waves ; 
while most vessels are built to go over them, or at 
least, to make the attempt. 

Only one gun is on this terrible war ship, and 
as it cannot be "trained " or moved ath wardships, 
the whole vessel has to be steered so as to direct 
the gun. The boat is about 100 feet long, so that 
it can cross Sweden through the locks. 

After showing me all that was to be seen here, 
the gentleman in charge kindly gave me a paper 
form of permission to pass free of expense through 
all the canal locks. But as it is the prerogative 
of the Eob Eoy never to go through any locks, but 
always to take a little country w 7 alk round about 
them instead, it seemed at first as if this paper 
would be of no use. 

Not so. Passing on our way until the time 
came for the mid-day meal, we pulled up at a 
lock-keeper's house, knocked, and w r ent in. Two 
women were seated there, and a baby. " Can you 
give me milk ? " (The first time I had ever asked 
for such a luxury with my chocolate.) No answer. 
" Any bread ? " Still dumb. They gave no atten- 
tion whatever. Thev had not seen the boat. Thev 
thought I was a tramp. I then produced the 
paddle, and they were puzzled^imy, appalled. 
Soothing the frightened baby with some sugar, 
and presenting a paper full of pictures to its 
grandmother, I coolly set up my spirit-stove on 
their table, and commenced the cooking in a most 
methodical manner. Their mingled amazement 
and curiosity was highly amusing ; but I kept my 
countenance gravely, and then handed them the 
magic paper of orders to the lock-keepers. A. 



76 MORNING CALL. 

great change at once began, and all was bustle ; 
but I got no milk. They looked hard at the 
paper, which inspired all the more awe because 
they could not read a word of it (in writing) until 
a man came in, and then a wonderful jabbering of 
tongues began, and went on all through my dinner ; 
and it may be going on still. 

Many English canoeists, several of them mem- 
bers of the Canoe Club, have paddled over Scan- 
dinavia since the Rob Eoy tried that pleasant 
cruising ground. All these wanderers seem to 
have been well received, and from one and another, 
at intervals, I obtain pleasant news of the various 
^personages mentioned in our log. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Washing Day — Feeding on Tin — Horse Steak — Queer 
College — Choosing Partners — Laborious Wedding — * 
That Tiresome Wire — Boxen Locks — Murdered 
Tongue — Observation — Solus — Lone Happiness. 

This was washing day on board the ship Kob 
Boy (Wednesday and Saturday were always so) ; 
therefore it w T as important to have fine drying 
weather. 

On such an occasion all hands were piped on 
deck by the boatswain at an early hour ; and the 
last pair that came up were told off to "scrub 
ship and wash clothes." All these articles were 
then put out to dry on the boom, where they 
dangled in the sun and breeze, quite regard- 
less of the public opinion or otherwise of land- 
lubbers ashore. 

It was the duty, of course, of the mate to make * 
a correct list of the washing, and to enter the ^ 
same in the log * 

When it was necessary to wash the sails of 1 
canoe (to maintain her respectable ch ir^dter 
under critical examination), this had to ber done 

* These lists were not dissimilar, nor were they volu- 
minous. The following is a copy of the longest ever wFwn :— 
" List of washing — One sock, one pocket-handkerchief,' another 
sock, the collar." %' 




78 WASHING DAY. 

during her stay in some port, while she was dis- 
mantled for a time, and the crew had shore leave. 

Then the sails were sent to a regular washer- 
woman; and their shape, size, and material 
puzzled her very much, so that she came her- 
self with smiles to return them to the captain, 
washed white as snow, and ironed in squares like 
a table-cloth, with the list pinned on them — 
" One suit of sails, with tacks, leaches, sheets, 
grommets, and halyards attached." 

A small store of provisions, and a mild effort to 
cook them, were two features added to the voyage, 
after the sharp experience of jejune days last year 
on the Danube, where the only thing always ready 
in the eating line was " Hunger Sauce." But the 
head cook of the Rob Roy was an ignoramus in 
his art. His essays were humble failures ; and 
he trusted his guests to enjoy rather the circum- 
stances and poetry of the repast, than the delicacies 
thereof. 

It was a rule "always to carry food for one 
day's hard eating, or two days of meagre diet. 
Biscuits kept well all the way round, and some 
have survived to this hour. A small bottle of 
brandy was refilled every week from the u reserve 
stores" (sent in advance), until all the English 
Jbrandy was gone, and then foreign brandy had to 
W added to the little remnant of true British 
smack ; just as when new planks, and then a new 
keel, are put into an old ship, but it is always felt 
to be the "old ship" still. 

The spirit-stove for cooking, which had been 
procured in Oxford Street, with all due heralding of 
its perfections, had its failings too, and, moreover, 



FEEDING ON TIN. 79 

had to be sheltered from wind during its use ; but 
then there was plenty of wood, in dry days, for an 
open fire ; and the lively crackling of blazing logs 
made it well worth the little trouble of hauling 
them through the dense thickets. 

Our cook's first attempt to make an oatmeal cake 
w T as certainly most disheartening; some people, 
indeed, cannot eat this excellent Scottish diet, but 
at any rate all cannot make it. He mixed the 
water and oatmeal, and had a round tin-plate 
heating on the flame, wiiereon the mixture was 
poured. It steamed, it set, it dried hard; and 
then he removed the plate from the fire, but alas ! 
the cake would not come off the tin-plate till it 
\\as torn away with struggles and a knife ; and 
then all the lower part of the brown cake w r as 
covered with bright tin, and it had to be throw r n 
away with a sigh, and gone w&s my only hope of 
breakfast : for even sea air does not enable you to 
digest sheet tin. 

Practice taught by hunger improved the cuisine 
steadily, and in a rough way W r e soon learned to 
put smoking soup on the table, stirring the bread, 
rice, or biscuits into it with the long wooden 
spoon which is narrow at the end, so as to do for 
eggs also. Chocolate succeeded well, and tea and 
coffee ; and the crew soon became accustomed to eat 
raw fish when they saw r other people eating it with, 
gusto ; just as in Russia one carves away comforta- 
bly at a tough hind leg of a horse, but in England 
we should, on the whole,, prefer- a sirloin of beef. 

Of course it is often, though by no means always, 
feasible to carry from the hotise you stop at 'for 
the night, a good supply for dinner of bread and 



80 QUEER COLLEGE. 

meat and eggs, and sometimes wine ; but the 
■addition, of something hot, which the stomach 
craves for after hours of exhausting exercise, can- 
not be withheld for many days without impairing 
that full and hearty vigour the lack of which 
makes a voyage of this kind rather a poor sort of 
treat. 

Now we have discussed the viands, and the 
steward of the Eob Boy packs the boxes and 
parcels and machinery of them carefully into a 
neat little basket, fitting under deck behind my 
back; and as our subject is done, and our cigar, 
it is time to shove off again into the water, rested,, 
fed, and with sentiments to all mankind most 
bland. 

At the end of the canal there were more locks, 
descending to the Boren Lake, but these the boat 
ran past, merrily gliding down hill on a grassy 
slope. Then we hoisted sail to a fine, strong 
favourable breeze, and sped fast away in the most 
lively fashion, visiting all parts of the lake, and 
loth to allow that the end w r as reached at last. 
Again into a canal, long and rather weary, com* 
pared with the dancing billowets of the lake, but 
clean, deep, wide, and winding, with fish leaping 
and birds singing; in fact, as good as a canal 
could be. 

At the end of a long day it was a wonder we 
had not come to our destination, a place called 
Berg, but not visible from the canal. However, 
we came to a lock, and three boys came to look 
on, and then at least fifty youths, all dressed with 
white neckties ; so we concluded it must be some- 
sort of college ; but it was surprising to find that 



CHOOSING PARTNERS. 81 

not one of the students could speak German, 
French, Italian, or Latin. Though greatly puzzled, 
it was needful to find night quarters ; so we bore 
the canoe off to a large house in mirthful proces- 
sion. Here we found a considerable hubbub in 
progress, and a tray laid out with about fifty glasses 
of punch on it. 

It struck me that the rations, or " commons," of 
the college were more liberal than their linguistic 
accomplishments ; but the punch was excellent, 
and a man dressed in military uniform, who I 
concluded was the drill-master, pressed me to enter 
and be at home. All right. 

Presently there came one who had been sent for 
and could talk French, and then all the mysterious 
riddle was explained. I had come just in time for 
the wedding-supper of the daughter of the wealthy 
landlord, and all these dressed-up collegians 
were only his friends accoutred for the evening 
party ; and as boys (not to say men) usually find 
marriage feasts to be very dull proceedings after 
an hour or two, the delight of these youngsters 
at the interlude of a canoe arrival may be ima- 
gined. 

The only place for me to sleep in was an ante- 
room with a sofa in it ; and even this room was held 
as a fortress by the butler for his stock of beer 
and wine, and it was not vacated until one o'clock 
in the morning. As well as a tired paddler could, 
I joined the "Borrullup," as this feast is called, 
and a young lady was introduced who could speak 
Euglish, they said — but not one word could she 
recollect. In preference I gave my arm to one of 
the bridesmaids, and led her down to supper, and 

G 



82 THAT TIRESOME WIRE. 

she seemed very well pleased with the "Engels- 
man" who came in a boat, so we had a lively 
conversation, each of us in our own language, quite 
independently. The supper was a most stupid 
affair, all people standing, and with long intervals 
between hot courses of strong food, suitable for 
the midday hours, perhaps, but quite de trop at 
midnight. Several speeches were made, and 
healths proposed by the gentleman in uniform, one 
of the " best men" of the bridegroom — for he has 
a subdivision here, to help him to carry his cares. 
Now and then I slipped off to lie down and rest 
on my sofa amid the bottles, which were numerous- 
and speedily emptied, and when the happy pair 
presented themselves, as is the custom, at the 
window for the inspection of a crowd outside, who 
had long been gazing through the lower panes in 
silent and rapt awe at the splendour of the bridal 
lace, I thought it a good move to exhibit my mag- 
nesium-wire light, which was just the right thing 
in the right place, for it lit up all the hillside, and 
showed a hundred faces, all turned one way, with 
one look of admiring wonder on all, and one hue of 
ghastly paleness. 

It is really amusing to think how many separate 
crowds of people in various countries have been 
illuminated and delighted by the little half yard 
of wire given to me last year on the lake of Zug 
by an English friend I met there. Some inches 
of the pretty metal remain even now to make 
hundreds gape. 

The crowd gathered early to start the Eob Eoy 
next day upon the beautiful Lake Roxen, of which 
I had to traverse the full length. The canal ap- 



EOXEN LOCKS. 



83 



proaches close to the lake, but about seventy feet 
above it, and the usual descent is by eleven locks ; 
but as they are close together, the canoe had 




merely to slide down the grass sloping to the 
verge of the water. A large party of people hap- 
pened then to be coming up the ascent, while 
their steamer would be delayed two hours or more 
in passing the locks ; and a good deal of amusement 

G 2 



84 MUEDEEED TONGUE. 

was afforded to them by seeing the swift traverse 
of the Rob Roy over the grass. 

The weather was superb, and I sailed about in the 
lake wasting time rather imprudently, for it was 
only eighteen miles long, if I had kept the proper 
course. Near the end of the day, and as the shores 
approached closer together, the navigation became 
so complicated, and the islands and bays so con- 
fused, that I went down a wrong channel ; there- 
fore all the labour of the past had to be donethree 
times instead of once, and vainly still I searched 
for the village of Norsholm. But the weather was 
lovely, and only too hot when the wind died down, 
and that soft mild calm of the setting sun, which 
lasts so long here, refreshed my tired limbs. At 
last I found a lady and gentleman in a boat fishing, 
and when I asked where I could sleep that night, 
the man pointed to a house. I will write what I 
said, just to show how few words of Swedish will do, 
and how very badly even these may be spoken 
and yet be enough. " Min Herr, jag ar Engelsk ; 
var kan jag liga i nat ? jag onskar sofva." That 
is intended to mean, " Sir, I am English ; where 
can I lie to-night ? I want a bed." Speedily he 
asked me to his own house, a pretty villa just by 
the water, and there this kind Mr. Garlman and 
his young wife were my hospitable entertainers. 
He could speak English, and had read of the Rob 
Roy in the papers, and, indeed, he was as pleased 
as I was with our rencontre. 

Mrs. Carlman curtsied deep when I gave her a 
little paper in Swedish, and the " British Work- 
man" was for her husband. A number of copies of 
this excellent periodical are now adorning the walls 



OBSERVATION. 85 

of Swedish inns and private houses ; and I think 
it would be a good plan if the woodcuts used for it 
could be lent to some one in Sweden, who might 
republish the periodical in the Swedish language.* 

Here, then, we are well housed for the night; and 
how lucky the paddler has been in coming always 
to friendly hosts, so that, with the exception of the 
first night in Norway, passed in wakeful irritation 
on the bed of straw 7 , I have, in one way or another, 
been comfortably lodged every night. 

The common pleasures of travelling may be 
agreeably varied, when your journey is among a 
people who are strange enough to be worth ob- 
serving in themselves as men and women ; so that 
not only the scenery, but what is done and w r hat is 
said by fellow-beings round enlists attention. 

After much travelling in our own country, we 
at least seem to know all that the people around 
us will say or do ; at any rate enough to be tired 
of its study, if a wet da) r keeps us in from the hills 
and dales of Nature. 

But dropping as a tourist into a remote district 
of Sweden, or on a sea-girt isle of Denmark, you 
have at once a pleasant curiosity to see the 
manners of the new people, and an eager desire to 
find out what they are saying ; and yet were it 
all understood or translated, the spell of curiosity 
might be broken, if you found the unknown talk x 
was dull. 

Travelling alone is the only way to enjoy this 

* This has since been done not only for Sweden but for 
France and Spain, and the ' Children's Friend ' in Arabic is 
now on every table and in many dark houses of the Druse 
villages of Mount Lebanon. 



86 solus. 

simple pleasure of quiet regarding. For if you 
travel with a companion you will speak to him, 
and lose what others are saying ; and if both you 
and your fellow-tourist are silent, the people 
about you are at once aware of observation. Then 
they become non-natural. They are now actors 
only, and the charm of the scene is spoiled. 
For observing the manners, and for learning the 
language, for sketching, for writing, for reflect- 
ing, and for reading, as well as for temper and 
freedom, and a special ranamed sentimental en- 
joyment of the incidents abroad, the traveller 
must travel alone. But as nobody will do this 
because another says he likes to do it, I shall not 
hope to convince or persuade, but merely to 
record what all will certify who have made good 
trial of a solitary tour. 

The enjoyment of lone travel is intensified by 
voyaging in a canoe, for this isolates more com- 
pletely than any other mode. During the work- 
ing hours of the day the want of a companion is 
never felt, because every moment has engagement 
for the mind in searching the way and managing 
the boat ; and if in fishing too, why, for that, it is 
confessed on all hands that to enjoy it thoroughly 
you must be alone. Arrived with the canoe at 
evening, and healthfully tired, what is it you want 
most ? If chatter, then there are plenty of visitors 
ready. But what the body now wants most is 
rest at full length on the top of a bed, and the 
mind, too, wants rest in a new attitude of thought. 
A " pleasant and lively companion" would be just 
the thing not to give pleasure then, but a pleasant 
book will. 



LONE HAPPINESS. 87 

All this we had enjoyed and appreciated in many 
former tours ; but in the present voyage there is 
the still closer isolation of the solitary bivouac. 

A fire of sticks on the ground out-of-doors — 
does it not remind us of schoolboy days, when a 
half-holiday looked as long as a week does now ? 
As a boy one had uproarious enjoyment in a 
bonfire, and in the roasted potatoes from its white- 
ashed embers. Yet as a man and at home one 
could scarcely feed thus in a field, unless with a 
nice party of friends, when the affair at once 
becomes a pic-nic, and is dependent on far other 
elements for its being tolerably pleasant. But 
sail you over the seas, prosaic man, a thousand 
miles away from home, from friends, from all 
men, and all women ; away from houses, horses, 
cows, carts, hedges, bridges, and even from ships. 
Peel off the last circumstance of civilization ; and 
when all this husk is off there will bud forth 
freshly from the untrammelled inner mind a new 
and tender flower of rare beauty and enjoyment — 
unless, indeed, yours is a poor suffocated soul — the 
delight of being alone. 

Seek out a shady bank, on a thick wooded isle, 
in a rocky nook by the deep clear water, and on a 
summer day ; there it will spring up, that quite 
new sentiment — too delicate to be ; shared by 
another, for it is broken if divided, and it is lost 
like water spilled, and so a mere bubble, per- 
haps, but still, if untouched, it is full, complete, and 
beautiful. Enough has now been said to recall 
this feeling, if you have ever known it. If you 
have not, my pen, less practised than my paddle, 
is too clumsy to paint the unknown. A feeble 



88 LONE HAPPINESS. 

enjoyment of this new sensation may be slightly 
felt when your only companion is a foreign guide — 
a Swiss in the Alps, a Kabyle in the Atlas, or an 
Indian in the prairie — and then only just in pro- 
portion as he is obtuse, silent, or asleep, and so is 
most like an animal, or, better, like a stone. Even 
then the unseen and ignored companion may 
spoil it all by suddenly becoming present ; he may 
awake, or alas! he may snore, or the sound may 
come through the tent of your horse munching 
his beans ; and away flies the fairy sentiment, which 
cannot endure even the bleating of a lamb on a 
far-off hill. Your flower will <close his petals, and 
your bubble will be burst. You are no longer alone. 

The rill of pleasure from this source once set 
flowing in the canoe tour will be an undercurrent 
for weeks, and will trickle through the mind 
sweetly in a stream without form or boundary, or 
will gush up at times with an aroma of thought — 
the dream of a dream, in visions that a Tennyson 
can tell in words, but all can grasp and feel. 
This current will also gather force enough to bear 
the checks of occasional town life and hotels ; but 
it is revelled in most fully as a deep pool of 
pleasure after the solitary, silent bivouac, when 
the prosaic body itself ^becomes as if absent, ru- 
minating ; and the wondrous thing called " Mind," 
feeling the silence around, creeps forth, at first 
stealthily ; but soon, being assured that no one sees 
or hears, and nothing else is near, and that there 
is freedom to unfold in, it slowly rises, erect, 
awake — a majestic form, awful, incomprehensible* 

Then begin the grand gymnastics of this giant 
unbound — the far-reaching stretches into the long 



LONE HAPPINESS. 89* 

past, but grasping only emptiness; the anxious 
gropings into the deep below, in vain ; and then the 
nimble plays of fancy round the near and present ; 
and, still unsatisfied, and craving still for what is 
lasting and true, it bounds off into the dim future, 
soon dashing against a wall of hard, cold darkness, 
firm and impenetrable. 

Stay, weary spirit, and at last look up, and listen 
to that solemn voice, " Be still, and know that I 
am God." " Faithful and true ;" "that liveth, and 
was dead ;" " the Everlasting Father, the Prince 
of Peace ;" and so you are not alone. 



( co ) 



CHAPTER IX. 

Poke the Fire — Flies and Flies — Sport and Play — Won't 
give in — Breakers — Bivouac — Surgeon's report — 
Search for a Town — Norrkoping Falls — Rest. 

Dawn — time to rise after a good sleep in a plea- 
sant room. Many of these rooms, though, which 
appear so comfortable in summer because they are 
light and airy and large, must be very different to 
live in when the mercury falls below zero in 
the cold winter nights. 

The use of a closed stove in foreign countries, 
instead of an open fire-place, as in England, at once 
reminds the traveller that he is away from home. 

Doubtless the stove is more economical and 
more philosophical, and it will keep all parts of a 
room equally warm ; whereas our wasteful grate 
only heats one side of everything ; and you may be 
slowly roasted at one end of the table, while your 
best friend is frozen at the other. 

Yet there are few of us, indeed, who would 
surrender the open coal fire and its glowing hearth 
and soft warm rug, even though we have to gather 
round closely, and must stoop to enjoy its one-sided 
warmth. 

The difference between the modes of heating 
the houses of Englishmen and Swedes is not unlike 
that between their two countries as regards wealth, 
refinement, and education ; for while in England 



FLIES AND FLIES. 91 

we have a thousand very rich and a thousand very 
poor, a thousand highly refined and a thousand 
very brutal, a thousand learned men and a thou- 
sand utterly ignorant, there seems to be in Nor- 
way and Sweden a general moderate competence, a 
sufficient courtesy, and a fair education throughout 
the whole. 

But it is summer still, so we need not sit round 
the fire for a chat. Let us stroll down to the 
water's edge, and rig up the fishing-rod, and seek 
out the best flies from our book, for it looks 
like fisherman's weather. 

And with regard to this sport of fishing, it cer- 
tainly was a grand addition now to the pleasures 
of last year's voyage; though we had scarcely 
prepared sufficiently for its proper enjoyment. In 
the lakes fish are caught best with the minnow 
and the trolling-line, being dainty animals that 
like to dine methodically, and to begin by eat- 
ing t fish. As for the artificial fly, their igno- 
rance of its satisfying sweetness is lamentable. 
They regard it as only a kickshaw, or, at most, it 
will do for dessert. 

We had not been warned of this, and so had 
brought only flies ; and as trolling-hooks could not 
be procured until the best lakes for using them 
were passed, it was only in the rivers that we had 
profitable sport, for sport it is even to fish without 
catching ; and the man who fishes for the fishes, 
and not for fishing, is not a true fisherman. 

Also let me say that the fishing-laws are not 
good ones in these parts ; moreover, the people do 
not keep them. Even in some of the most famed 
fishing-grounds we found that fish are now very 



92 SPOBT AND PLAY. 

scarce, and are more expensive for food than 
butcher's meat. After fishing very carefully over 
one very good-looking lake, I was told at the end 
that not one single fish had ever been heard of there. 
So I think now a really good case has been made 
out in defence of my having only small sport, and 
seldom ; and was there ever a fisherman who had 
not most weighty reasons for a light basket ? 

Still, it w T as great fun thus fishing ; and even 
when you cannot feel every moment that a ten- 
pounder is just about to rise, there is some satis- 
faction in being able to flog the water. 

So hie away in the beauteous morn, and before 
the sleepy rolling mist has risen from the 
lake. But there was an evident stream here ; and I 
renewed the old and pleasant sensation experienced 
on the Rhine last year, in shooting right ahead 
through perfectly white fog. The ear would have 
easily told of any serious difficulty in the way, so 
it was tolerably safe and very amusing. 

When the sun did burst through, we began at 
once with a lucky red hackle, for the river seemed 
good for a fish or two. 

Casting my fly behind a great rock, it was taken 
by a fish, and I saw very soon he w T as a large one. 
He played in the most puzzling manner for half- 
an-hour — often jumping out of the water, and often 
dragging the boat near rocks and rapids ; but I 
would have sooner jumped into the water than 
lose such a prize. Three times he got under the 
boat, and I feared then for the thin line against 
the iron keel. What with the fish, the paddle, 
the rocks and trees and the current, I once got so 
entangled that my rod slipped out of my hand ; 



WON T GIVE IN. 



93 



but it had no reel on, so it floated, and we gave 
chase up the stream, and caught and grasped the 
butt once more — the fish still on. My little 
landing net was not ready. Indeed, I was not 




'LED BY THE NOSE.' 



quite prepared for so good a take all at once 
(fishermen will understand this state of things) ; 
so the manner of getting him into the boat was 
the real point of puzzle. Twice I had my mac- 
intosh apron under him, but failed to secure his 
cold, fat, slippery sides, until at the third attempt, 
when I fairly shovelled him into the boat, with a 
deluge of water — a nine-pound grayling, and well 
worth all the time and trouble, as every sportsman 
will allow. 



91 BEEAKEES. 

It is evident, however, that to fish in a small 
canoe, when you manage the sails, the paddle, and 
the rod with only two hands, and when you have 
to attend to the wind, the current, and your flies, 
is a full tax on energy, and needs great attention ; 
and it was well to put on the cork-seat life-pre- 
server when fishing in the deep lakes and sailing 
at the same time, because one might be entangled 
then among the ropes and strings and fishing-line^ 
if an upset were to occur. 

The banks of " Motala Strom " equalled all we 
had heard in their praise ; and it was quite a 
pleasure to find how much was gained by the 
detour I was now making for scenery's sake. For 
at Norsholm the canal leaves Lake Eoxen to ga 
east to Soderkoping, whereas the river Motala 
turns due north, and will soon bring us into a 
large lake, quite out of the usual beat, and by 
which we can reach Norrkoping. 

Beautiful villas, meadows, gardens, orchards, 
wand mills ere scattered along shady reaches of 
quiet water or by bubbling pools and steep rocky 
hollows. At length a loud rushing sound roused 
me, as the well-known signal/)!' "breakers ahead." 
This was a waterfall, too deep, high, and furious 
to pass in any boat ; and the men from a sawmill 
near all ran to see the canoe when we stopped to 
reconnoitre. 

"This is from England," said I; and the master 
answered "Ya." Thereby it was plain he had 
read all about her in his newspaper,- else he would 
have replied, " So— o — o ? ? ? " as they invariably 
do when they mean our " Indeed ?" 

His men helped me ; and they rejoiced much to 



BIVOUAC, 95 

receive the grayling as a present in return ; for 
the fish was too heavy to carry further, and we 
had still thirty miles to do. 

A little tired with the morning's work, and 
with eleven hours in the boat on the preceding- 
day, I now sought a shady cave by the water for a 
good long " dine." Here you might see the canoe 
drawn up in a spot which seems perfect for a 
bivouac, and all the boat's stores displayed, with 
plenty of dry wood at hand, and a good dry rock 
to cook upon. There was but one defect in all 
this arrangement — but that was a fatal one — the 
water was not clear. 

It was at the embouchure of the river, and only 
half-a-mile from the turbulence of the cascade, and 
not far enough into the lake to allow the troubled 
mud to subside. Although this dirty water was 
soon noticed, we were too lazy to pack up and go 
on a few miles, and to begin again ; therefore, in a 
bad compromise the cook was ordered to make 
chocolate, as if by its luscious flavour we could 
sweeten the green water. 

The palate may be trifled with, but in a voyage 
of this sort the stomach will stand no nonsense. 
Forced to work hard all day, this important de- 
partment insists on good food, or it will " strike." 

Mine struck with all its powers, combining " as 
one man ;" but the food was forced down amid 
the general discontent of the community, and the 
bivouac was converted into a pitched battle be- 
tween the mind that insisted on feeding and the 
body that refused to be fed with mud-cocoa. 

A victory for the hour by the party of force, 
just as in the body politic, may result only in the 



96 sukgeon's report. 

prostration of all parties afterwards; and so it 
was, for the beauties of Lake Glan now spread out 
before my eyes in vain ; birds warbled, but my 
ear heeded not, and to all sweet odours iny nose 
was disdainfully turned up. Though we sailed, 
fished, paddled, whistled, and sang, there was a 
dull heavy sickness under all the forced mirth. 
The surgeon of the Eob Eoy hereby warns all 
paddlers to beware of doubtful water, when they 
mean to work long in the sun, and their lot is cast 
in a cholera land. 

Well, enjoyment came again, nevertheless, in 
the evening, as of yore ; and after many a tack 
while the wind lasted, and full many a stroke with 
the paddle, at last we neared the end of the lake, 
where, according to the map, you will see that 
Norrkoping ought to be — and pray be good enough 
to call it Norchipping. 

But this shy town resolutely stayed behind a 
hill, and with my best efforts I could not discover 
the way to it. A man passed in a boat and shouted 
out, and a number of his vowels reached me ; but 
after half-an-hour's threading through weeds and 
islands in the direction he advised, it was only 
too plain that he had been showing how to go to 
Norrkoping by land ; so I had to hark back and 
begin the whole affair again, while the light was 
fading and the Kob Eoy was weary. 

Then our boatswain had to go ashore, and to 
mount several islands, one after another, for a 
view ; but the intricacy seemed only more en- 
tangled each time it was scanned, for not one out- 
let could be seen to any of the arms of the lake. 

Much of the difficulty in finding the way, both 



SEAECH FOE A TOWN. 97 

on Eoxen and Glan, was owing to the inaccuracy 
of the map — not the excellent map brought from 
London (for that did not extend to these two 
lakes), but another, bought at Vadstena, and 
highly recommended as " new, cheap, and good." 
I can only say that this had straight coasts where 
there were twenty bends, and no island depicted 
unless it was half an inch long. Such a map is 
of course quite useless on lakes like the two we 
have just been lost upon. 

It is needless to detail all the devices w r e em- 
ployed to extricate the Rob Eoy from this laby- 
rinth, and for which purpose it was necessary to 
ascertain the slight but perceptible motion of a 
current at the end of Lake Grlan. This, at last, was 
only done by watching those indescribable signs 
which the canoeist learns to know, as an Indian 
discerns a trail where no one else can -see it, even 
after it is pointed out. 

But I shall not forget the pleasure of finding at 
length the sought-for outlet, and there was even 
satisfaction (that of " No wonder I could not !") in 
perceiving how very unusual was its form, bent 
round at right angles, hidden from view, and 
looking so very innocent all the time. Then came 
a pleasant current, and all was life in my crew, 
though they had been on the stretch again for 
eleven hours, and there were several miles yet to 
be done. 

It will be understood that no attempt is 
made in our log to record the various separate 
lakes of smaller dimensions we passed through, 
and the still more numerous ponds, like the Serpen- 
tine, though these were often pretty and inter- 

H 



98 NOKRKOPING FALLS. 

esting, but a mere list of them would not be at 
all so. However, the Motala Strom became now 
again a downright river, and asserted its right to 
run, and resumed its attractive beauty. Villas 
and deep groves and avenues were on the banks, 
high and richly- wooded, while the water was clean 
and deep, until we came to the falls at Norrkoping 
so suddenly that I had to hurry from mid-stream to 
the bank, where a man was fishing with a net. He 
said no man could be had there to carry my boat ; 
and, as this was quite a new answer to the usual 
question, we landed to inspect the place, the man 
following, rather solemn in mood and a good deal 
taken aback at the sudden intrusion. I found I 
had come ashore in the premises of a prison for 
females, and hence the man's refusal to help the 
proceeding ! 

It is often thus that some apparent incivility 
may be only the result of causes we do not appre- 
ciate until after examination. But I was now in 
a great difficulty. The stream was too strong for 
me to reascend in my tired condition, and the 
question was, shall I be able to cross to the other 
side, on the verge of this great fall, without much 
danger of being carried over ? After spying from 
various quarters, and well considering the matter, 
I felt sure it was to be done, provided every stroke 
of the paddle were to be a true one, and made to 
tell ; and then, bracing up my tired muscles, and 
after a short pull at some brandy (only useful for 
very momentary work like this), I shot across like 
an arrow ; and soon the Eob Eoy reclined at rest in 
the coach-house of a fine hotel at Norrkoping. 

We rested a day here (August 24), for, in spite of 



EEST. 99 

my determination over and over again not to work 
too hard, I had been far too long in my journeys 
•every day for some time past ; and though at the 
time one's spirit and the great excitement and 
pleasure of rowing and sailing may enable great ex- 
ertion to be undergone, it is sure to prove too much 
when continued for many days, and especially if the 
hours of sleep are contracted or disturbed, and the 
meals are irregular and often meagre besides. 

Here, then, emerging from the maze of inland 
waters, and now upon the shores of the Baltic Sea, 
it may be allowed to pause a little, and draw 
breath. 

" land ! thou land of thousand lakes, 

Of song and constancy ; 
Against whose strand life's ocean breaks, 
Where dreams the past, the future wakes : 

Oh, blush not for thy poverty, 

Be hopeful, bold, and free ! 

*' Thy blossom in the bud that lies 

Shall burst its fetters strong ; 
Lo ! from our tender love shall rise 
Thy light, thy fame, thy hopes, thy joys ; 

And prouder far shall sound, ere long, 

Our Finland's patriot song ! " 

[From (i Vort Land" a Scandinavian Song by BunebergJ] 



H 2 



( ioo ) 



CHAPTER X. 

Eight-about-face — Another B evolution — A Eadical Tory 
— Boys' Beadle — You shall teach — On the Baltic — 
Maps — Launched — Fog at Sea — Man in the Mist — 
A Night Peril — Stockholm. 

In the passage across Sweden during the last 
three weeks, I had met with no parasol, no chim- 
ney-pot hat, no funeral, no blow given in anger 7 
no quarrel, no fight, no carpet, no cripple, no 
idiot, one man running, one soldier, one who could 
not read, one beggar, one blind man, one insane, 
one very handsome man, and how many pretty 
girls I will not tell you. 

Why, we must have been quite out of society 
there ? 

That is a matter of opinion, and the facts are 
before you. 

As for the " one man running," it is exclusive 
of the people who ran to see the Eob Boy ; for in 
fact the Swedes do not exhibit much agility, being 
a sedate comfortable people; and one wonders 
what their manly exercises are. 

In the upper part of Vermland, and in the dis- 
trict of Norway near it, there is a very strange 
physical feat sometimes practised, which is also 
known in many parts of Scotland. One day when 
two friends were walking with me in a sequestered 
part of Norway, we heard a curious sound on the 
other side of a dike, which was first a great smack, 
as if something had thumped the ground, and then 



RIGHT-ABOUT-FACE, 



101 



•a puffing and blowing of somebody breathing hard 
•and quickly. 

On approaching the place we saw over the fence 
a young man quite alone, who was practising over 
and over the most inexplicable leap into the air 
that could be devised for human body. He swang 
himself up, and then round on his hand for a point, 




SALMON POLKA." 



when his upper leg described a great circle, and 
came down at last with a resounding whack. 

Inquiry about the gymnastic performance is 
answered by telling me that it is an ancient 
dance-step of that region, and is called in Swedish 
"Giesse Harad Polska," that is, " Salmon-district 
step ; " perhaps, the first dancing-master w 7 ho 
taught it learned the leap from a salmon. 



102 ANOTHER REVOLUTION. 

Norrkoping reminded me of some of the towns- 
on the Danube, where the river is banked up to 
work numerous wheels, and there is a gushing, 
rushing, splashing sound all day and all night>. 
with waterfall spray rising slowly in the morning 
air. 

There is a railway here, and a large hotel, busi- 
ness in the streets, and a huge cloth-mill peering 
over the Motala, where that river makes its last 
few noisy leaps, tumbling over rocks into the Baltic,, 
to be lost in the great sea. 

As we are not professing to describe foreign 
lands and towns and the people in them, but only 
to write the log of a canoe, it will hardly do to 
give an account here of the politics or education 
of Sweden, though both of these are very inter- 
esting ; the first, because a wonderful change has 
just been effected in the mode of government — 
a revolution, complete but bloodless ; and the 
second, because the system of education, for the 
masses at least, appears to be the most successful 
in the world. 

Sweden, until last summer, had four houses in 
its legislature — nobles, clerics, burgesses, and 
land-owners. Two of these houses are abolished, 
the nobles surrendering their special privileges as 
hereditary legislators and the clergy vacating 
their special priestly chamber. Now there are 
two Houses of Parliament only, to which any man 
may be sent, without reference to his trade or 
business, by the votes of electors widely enfran- 
chised. 

On the Upper and Lower House, then, and on 
the king, as a third leg of the stool, rests the seat 



A RADICAL TORY. 103 

of government ; and probably its base will be as 
stable on three legs as on five. The first elec- 
tions under the new system were proceeding 
during my visit, and it was curious to observe the 
coy delicacy with which men handled the untried 
engine of power. 

For example, a friend of mine desired to get 
into the Lower House (as better for action and 
spirited debate), but his neighbours wished to elect 
him as a member of the Upper and more dignified 
body. Now, by the new law, he must not canvass, 
and he must not even issue a proposal as candidate. 
Perhaps, then, by this time he is a Senator against 
his will.* Time will work this stiffness off, alas ! 
and no doubt, in a few years, there will be elec- 
tion " lambs," even by the green shores of Vet- 
tern. 

A banker here, Mr. E , was very kind to 

me, and gave a sumptuous dinner to the crew of 
the Kob Koy, where we met two other gentlemen 
who could speak English. After this, perhaps, 
it is unfair to tell the political creed of our host — 
a Tory, who wishes to see women sitting (he did 
not actually say, speaking) in Parliament. Mr. 
Stuart Mill is, therefore, outbid entirely — for I 
suppose he only likes feminine electors; but it 
would, indeed, be worth while being an M.P. 
oneself to see the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
badgered on an amendment by Dr. Emma Blew, 
Memberess for Honiton. 

On a beautiful hill near the town are the new 
State schools. The buildings are large and hand- 
some, airy and light, and with gardens round, 
* P.S. — Yes ; it has happ3ned even so. 



104 boys' beadle. 

where the children are permitted to work if very- 
good at their lessons. The scholars comprise 
many who would be in our Bagged-schools, and 
who do not pay for their education, Every child 
in Sweden above six years old must learn to read, 
or, if not, a policeman brings him to school ; but 
there is little need of such compulsion, for a person 
employed in each district goes to all refractory 
parents. He is called a ' Persuader,' and persuades 
them to comply with the useful rule.* No child 
may be employed in a factory until he is twelve 
years old, and has learned, at any rate, the 
minimum of ordinary education. The school-rooms 
are admirably furnished — maps and pictures en- 
liven the walls, and a gymnasium and playground 
vary the scene. At each desk sit two pupils, each 
with a chair adjusted to his height, and with excel- 
lent arrangements for desks and school furniture, 
being the same as won the first prize when Sweden 
exhibited them at our London Exhibition of 1862. 
There are twenty-five women teachers, and only 
four men. The influence of men by command is 
said to be less useful than that of women by their 
gentleness and grace ; but all the teachers are 
carefully selected, " because the worst materials 
need the best instruments to work upon them." 

. * On my return this was tried in London, by the appoint- 
ment of a properly- qualified agent to "look after" the 
neglected children in our streets, and to send them to their 
parents, to schools, refuges, or reformatories, or to the police 
offices, according to their several conditions. " This Boys' 
Beadle " has been a complete success. The new Education 
Act adopted the plan, and the writer of this, with four other 
Members of the London School Board, direct rive such officers 
appointed under the Act. 



YOU SHALL TEACH. 105 

The whole plan and scope of the system seems 
very like that in America; and it is within the 
power of a small town to adopt and to perfect 
machinery of this kind, when a few active men like 
the Swedish banker can be interested enough to 
manage it. Still, after numerous visits to foreign 
schools and experience of our own, I cannot say 
"No" to the question, "Is it wrong to compel 
every child living in our land to learn, when we 
insist upon it in our own homes ? and may we not 
punish a father who starves his child's mind, when 
we may punish him if he starves its body ?" The 
crew of the Eob Koy, on being polled, decided 
by a casting vote in favour of compulsory educa- 
tion.* 

A little way down the river, we next went to. 
visit quite another sort of Monitors — those with 
the iron-sides — of which one designed by the 
Swedo-American Ericsson lies here ready to be 
launched. It is a huge, ugly, and impenetrable 
thing, perfectly fitted for its fearful purpose, and 
horribly suggestive of crashing shells and thun- 
dering blows, and the shouts and shrieks of war. 

But let us return to our own peaceful boat, as 
the poet beautifully says : 

" Robur et Ees triplex, 
Qui primus ; " 

and the other poet beautifully renders : 

" The Eob Roy, first (of oak) canoed a trip at ease, 
By paddle, sail, and cart, through forest, lake, and seas." 



* Rapidly the principle has been adopted in England. 
" Compulsory Education" and "Religious Education" are 
the two features of the best School Boards. 



106 ON THE BALTIC. 

For this page of the log will recount the first 
trip on the Baltic Sea by our little canoe, after 
three weeks spent most pleasantly on the inland 
" Sees/' and lesser lakes, and broad rivers, and 
purling streams of Norway and Sweden. It was 
natural enough for me to wish for a paddle on 
the veritable sea waves, though those on Venern 
are sometimes quite as large, and the surge on 
Lake Vettern is more trying to muscle and pluck, 
with its sharp pointed crests, when a south wind 
blows. 

To give me a good long day in the open sea, I 
arranged with a steamer to take us along the 
winding estuary of the Broviken, until she had 
to turn south-east on her course, and there to drop 
me in the waves, to paddle and sail north-east for 
Stockholm. 

Crowds gathered to see the canoe on the deck 
of the " Gotha," and a regular stream of visitors 
came up one staircase and went down the other, 
pacing slowly round the little craft, peering into it, 
measuring with tapes and foot-rules, lifting it, 
patting it, rubbing it, and then always settling on 
the flag ; but at that point the marine on duty 
always said " paws off," which the Swedes will 
hereafter understand as meaning "don't touch." 
They were amused to see me lay in provisions for 
three days (that would be, of course, on very short 
rations), so that if the west wind then blowing 
should increase, and by any accident we might be 
blown off land, our little shipload would possibly 
reach the Eussian coast, at any rate. 

Oddly enough, not two of the visitors agreed as. 
to whether the water of the Baltic is too salt to 



J TJ T L A N D 





ROUTE OF THE ROB ROY 

DENMARK, SLESVIG, 

HOLSTE1N&THL NORTH SZA. 

indicated by a dotted line. 



VjnceruJJrooks . KthJ.onflor. 




^Elsineur 



Openly 



MAPS. 107 

drink. Probably it is in some parts very much 
Salter than in others, but we arranged this matter 
by saying it would do for salt soup, and I also took 
a bottle of sherry to make sure. The harbour- 
master was on board the steamer — an old sailor, 
and constantly cruising about these coasts — so we 
got full directions where to steer for by the 
steamer's chart, though all efforts to get a proper 
compass were unsuccessful. 

In the Danube voyage last year, it was found 
that the frequent reference necessary to a map 
made it advisable to cut the large map into small 
squares, so that, when used on service, no unfold- 
ing was required, and only a small part (showing 
about three days' journey) was exposed to the rain, 
wind, and vicissitudes of canoe life, while the 
reference-square was conveniently carried in the 
pocket. 

This arrangement was now matured, so that on 
the last voyage I carried in my breast-pocket a 
piece of cardboard doubled, and showing, when 
opened, one square of map and one square of blank 
paper. Both of these were constantly used — the 
one to get information from, and the other to note 
observations on with a pencil. 

One of these map-squares is reproduced in exact 
size as Map 3, opposite ; but only some of the 
numerous rivers, lakes, and names upon the original 
map (those nearer the canoe route) are printed 
in the copy. 

It wall be observed that the route on this map, 
th " "" >rmland, comprises one long 

d* Irvika to Higsitter, a s^ort 

dj artingthe boat to Br*gi* k, 



108 LAUNCHED. 

and a third day's winding pull on Venern round to 
Carlstad. This is the largest scale of map to be 
procured (costing 24s. in London), but still only 
about one island in every five will be found marked 
upon it. 

It may seem strange to a boating man that 
there should be any difficulty in finding the course 
when one has a good map and good weather ; but 
it has been already explained that the islands con- 
stitute the chief difficulty, and in most places the 
inhabitants, and especially the sailors, expressed 
great surprise that a canoe could find its way in 
these archipelagoes at all. No part of the coast 
of Europe that I have seen, not even the west of 
Scotland, has anything like the multitude of 
islands one finds in Norway and Sweden. 

When we came into the bay the steamer stopped, 
and I shoved the Eob Eoy over her side, stepped 
in, and in a few seconds I was paddling away on 
my course, while the Gotha paddled away on hers, 
and she was soon lost to sight behind a cape. Then 
I felt happy and free. 

It was a supremely fine morning, with a light 
wind, which died down to complete glassy calm. 
The silence as I glided under tall cliffs, with 
rugged rocks above, and strange sea-birds looking 
down from them, was quite impressive. Only now 
and then there plashed round the headland the 
break of the long-rolling swell, or the shrill cry 
of a gull, or the whiffing of the strong wings of the 
wild goose, sailing aloft in groups of three or five 
in a wedge-shaped company. Another very large 
bird, with long, curved neck, also fle— ^ast some- 
times, and the water had a dark ^ % and 



FOG AT SEA. 109 

the weeds in its depths were new, for it was sea 
now, and no longer lake. 

The first bay we crossed was six miles wide, and 
then came another of eight miles; and, as the breeze 
began to freshen here, we stopped on a rock to 
rest, to lunch, and to set my little lug and tiny 
jib, and then away again the Rob Roy rode on the 
waves gaily and fast.* For some hours no house 
was to be seen, and no man or beast; but the 
feeling of romantic solitude would have been 
spoiled by these. At length we got among the 
islands, and then little fishing-boats came in sight, 
and a cottage here and there, and a white post 
placed as a mark for ships to guide their course by 
in this labyrinth of rocks, where it must be fearful 
work to sail in a winter's night of storm. 

Suddenly the wind calmed, and turned about 
right in my teeth, and a great thick fog-bank came 
hustling up along the sea yearning to infold the 
poor Eob Roy in its clammy and dim cloud, like 
soft cotton-wool. But this happened too late to be 
dangerous, for w 7 e were near enough to shore,, 
though here it was craggy and bleak. 

At worst, however, it would only have been 
necessary to choose a softish rock for the night,, 
and to turn the boat over on it for a roof ; and 
serene sleep may be had even by the sounding 
w 7 ave. This, of course, was only as a last resort ; 
meanwhile I resolved to lie-to for an hour, and 
wait for finer weather ; and meanwhile, too, a glass 
of grog was served all round to the crew, and a 
double ration to the captain. 

* The design on the cover of this book shows the high, 
swell with little wind which fortunately met us in the Baltic. 



110 MAN IN THE MIST. 

The real sea certainly has waves quite different 
from those even of a large fresh-water lake, how- 
ever wide its shores. They are more buoyant, 
without doubt, and they seem to be more dignified. 
If I am to be drowned, let my shroud be salt 
water. 

Moving cautiously among the rocky points, 
where the fog was so thick that any speed would 
be dangerous, suddenly a sunbeam split the misty 
curtain, and I saw a man on the top of a very tall 
ladder supported in a leaning position. This was 
a look-out post ; and the moment the man saw me 
he ran down, shouting as if he was mad, but it 
turned out to be only an old sailor's joy at seeing 
so beautiful a boat. Worthy tar! he had been 
all over the world, as well as " at Newcastle, in 
Scotland ;" he was now, he said, stationed " out 
of the world." He soon got another boat, 
and pulled alongside, and then round and round 
me, with loud exclamations of genuine delight — 
66 So feen, so feen !" so pretty, so pretty ! and 
decidedly the Eob Eoy was " mycket bra." This 
old pilot soon put me on the right track ; and I 
pulled up at the little village of Oxlo Sund,* where, 
as may be supposed, every man, woman, and child 
came to see the boat, now left for half-au-hour 
on the beach while I reclined on the grass to rest. 

This little hamlet is a bathing-place, and the 
young ladies soon arrived in bevies of alarming 
strength. The pilot had it all his own way in a 
lecture about the Eob Eoy; and a carpenter 
measured her every whit, while another wiseacre 
said she was only a large fiddle. 

* Pronounced nearly Oaksely Soont. 



A NIGHT PERIL. Ill 

A steamer was to come past there about mid- 
night, and I resolved to stop until she came, and 
take my boat on board. This was the second time 
I had put the canoe on a steamer at night ; but 
it is an anxious piece of work, especially in rain 
and darkness, and without the steamer coming to 
the shore. For the rain soon began to patter, and 
I had to pass weary hours in a very poor inn, 
away from my boat, and therefore miserable. At 
last, when the red lantern was run up as a signal 
for the steamer to stop, some of the men said she 
would certainly come to the quay to embark me, 
while others said this particular captain was " not 
good," and would insist on my going out to him. 
And so, in fact, he did ; therefore, at the last 
moment I had hurriedly to launch the canoe 
wholly unaided, tumble my luggage in, and paddle 
away in the darkness. When I came near him, 
and the steamer stopped, there were a dozen 
hands reached down, but all too short to get hold 
of mine, and just then a great lumbering boat came 
alongside before I had handed my rope to the 
steamer, but after I had given my paddle to them. 
It was a moment of great peril to the canoe ; and 
it was impossible not to recollect with a pang that 
both my coats were on my back (because of the 
cold), and so if the canoe were upset there would 
be no dry things for to-morrow. 

The Eob Koy roared a loud shout, but the other 
clumsy boat would not hear ; nor could they 
see me at all. One foot more, and we shall be 
plunged under water with a broken bow. 

There was nothing for it but instant decision — to 
shove off from the steamer ; and so here was the 



112 



A NIGHT PERIL. 



luckless voyager standing up in a canoe in the dark, 
and on the waves, and without his paddle, and with 
his long " painter " rope dangling in the water. 
It is easy enough to stand up if your paddle is 




retained as a balancing-pole ; but the position 
depicted in the woodcut was one of no small 
difficulty. Still, it was best to keep standing, 
because gradually the wind bore me to the 



STOCKHOLM. 113 

steamer's side again, though I found her side 
far too well polished for me, as my nails vainly 
clung to the cold smooth iron. 

It may be asked why try to catch this steamer 
at all ? It was to save me from passing a Sunday 
away from my reserve luggage (already sent on), 
with its books to read, and other comforts. 

The Eob Eoy was speedily housed on the 
steamer's deck, and I tried to sleep in a cabin so 
close to the engines that it seemed as if all the 
hammermen at Motala were banging away just 
under my right ear. At length sleep came when 
I ought to have been awake ; and the end of it was 
that I was not aroused until the "flicka," or 
waiting-maid, told me we had arrived in Stock- 
holm. So ended my first paddle on the Baltic. 



( 114 ) 



CHAPTER XL 

Stockholm — The "Times"— The Exhibition — Bears and: 
Bogies — Outrigger — Down in a Whale — Beautiful 
City — Lady Canoeists — Town Life. 

I observed but little alteration in Stockholm 
since my former visit, ten years ago. The pave- 
ment is still bad ; and the windows always will look 
ugly when they place the glass level with the outer 
wall. True, there is good reason for this, for the 
snow settles in winter on any projecting ledge ; but 
nothing gives a house a more cardbox appearance 
than this fashion ; and, on the other hand, when 
the windows are deeply recessed, as, for instance, 
at Taymouth Castle, or Windsor, what depth and 
solidity and strength, and even comfort, seem to- 
be expressed by this one character ! 

It is said that the name of this fine capital was 
given to it when some homeless wanderers, wish- 
ing to settle" somewhere, put their raft into the 
current, and agreed to build a town wherever the 
"stock," or sticks, should rest, which happened to 
be on one of the beautiful islands now covered 
with houses. 

The Hotel Eydberg is one of the best you can 
enter anywhere, and cheap as well as good. In 
the height of the season, and, moreover, in " Ex- 
hibition time," you have an excellent room for 
about three shillings a day, with those sofas and 



THE "TIMES." 115 

tables and easy chairs which so many of our 
English hotels will not give their guests, although, 
in most cases, these comforts induce travellers to 
come, and when come to abide. 

Among the people you meet in the Sal there 
are some English, of course, and that party of 
ladies will keep talking loud enough for us all. 
" They do stare so here," says one very bizarre in 
her attire : "I really never did see such people to 
stare at one. Not that I noticed they were staring 
at me, but Clara saw it." (Oh, naughty Clara !) 

Then you adjourn to the reading-room, and with 
the " Afton blad," or evening paper, duly announc- 
ing the arrival of the ship Bob Boy, is the French 
" Siecle," where we find a Scotchman described 
under another aspect, as follows : — 

It seems (according to this French journal) that 
Scotchmen have different names for things, and 
they call a leg of mutton after it is once cooked 
and served up again, by the name of " poor man " 
{pauvre homme), "and one day lately Lord 
Brightred came to the hotel at Charing Cross, and 
being very hungry, asked for something substantial 
to eat, and desired the waiter to bring him a slice 
of 'poor man.' The waiter fainted," — so would 
Lord Brightred, if he has any conscience in his 
cannibal mind, when he reads this story. 

But then there is the grand broadsheet of the 
" Times " on one of the little marble tables ; and 
certainly it is a great treat to get the " Times " 
when you have been absent for a month from solid 
news. Here is the unwearied giant toiling away 
even in vacation time ; striking straight blows, 
but above the belt — thundering with sheet light- 

I 2 



116 THE EXHIBITION. 

ning that does not kill, but clears the air. While 
we are idly paddling, he has been searching the 
close workhouse wards, cleansing the foul cholera 
pools, exploding the "pernicious nonsense" of 
doll-dressed parsons, pulling at rich purses for poor 
far-off parishes, pleading for the maimed, the mad, 
the wrecked, the blind, the widowed, the hard-up, 
even for the horses and bullocks, and for the 
unfortunate bachelor and timid old maid who are 
shut up to travel together by railway in a box, 
where with smoke or without it, both cannot be 
happy. 

We must leave the paper half unread, for we 
have to see the great Scandinavian Exhibition, 
opened in Stockholm. This interesting collection 
of arts and manufactures is not an international 
one, but solely for the products of Sweden, Nor- 
way, Denmark, and Finland. 

In some features, of course, there was positive 
excellence. Look, for instance, at those maps and 
charts and school-books and literature for the 
blind; so clear, so practical, and so eminently 
cheap. On one map you see Europe coloured as 
to mountains ; on another, as to population ; on 
another, as to fertility ; on another, as to railway 
communication ; and a child will readily appre- 
hend each of these pieces of instruction presented 
separately, while even an adult has but a vague 
idea of what he has seen, when it is entangled with 
other matters. Then you have a wire-gauze globe, 
with the stars on it and the earth inside — a most 
simple mode of beginning with astronomy ; and a 
case of little card-boxes, each holding a few leaves 
and twigs of various trees, so that botany may be 



BEARS AND BOGIES. 117 

studied even by a ragged-school. The iron-works 
of Sweden are justly renowned ; and here we see 
them explained and modelled to advantage. The 
great Dannemora mine we shall explain in our 
next chapter. 

In the Finland and Lapland Annexe are shown 
all sorts of wild sea-birds and bears and wolves 
and furry quadrupeds. One great bearskin is so 
arranged by stripping the skin off the animal's 
stomach as well as off its back, that it is fifteen 
feet long — a monster this to be hugged by when 
your second barrel has missed fire ! A series of 
fearsome pictures are exhibited, rudely drawn on 
calico in black and red, and very like the grotesque 
designs of the old Mexican humorists. These 
are charms used in Finland to frighten away the 
bears ; and very bold must be the bear that is 
not afraid of these (see fig. 2, on page 119). 
There is a man's cap, too, made of a hedgehog's 
skin, with a hedgehog's face for a peak ; and this 
you may put on if the wild beast only laughs at 
caricatures. Eeal art is, however, well represented 
in the exhibition of modern Scandinavian pictures, 
among which those by Tidiman rank highest; 
while the splendid group of " The Grapplers," by 
Molin, which most of us recollect at the London 
Exhibition of 1862, shows that sculpture has a fit 
successor to Thorvaldsen. Then there are the 
Laplanders' dog-sleighs and their snow-shoes, each 
being a strip of wood like the letter f, with a strap 
for the foot in the middle, and the end turned up, 
to glide over the frozen hills. Some of these shoes 
are twelve feet in length, and that for the right 
foot is covered at the bottom with a hairy skin, 



118 OUTRIGGEE. 

so as to give a hold of the snow in the back stroke 
for propulsion. 

There is the reindeer-sleigh, one trace from the 
deer's breast and between its legs, and one rein 
from its head, which the driver flips from side to 
side as he guides his horned team. 

All sorts of boats are modelled here, and you 
may notice even an " outrigger " rowing-boat, used 
long ago in Finland (fig. 3, page 119) and called 
" ekstock " — but coolly appropriated as an English 
invention on the Thames. High up there hang 
festoons of gracefully-curved nets, some with fine 
thread and narrow mesh, to catch the herring and 
sprat, others with tough rope coils, to wind round 
the struggling monsters of the deep. Corks are 
used for some, birch bark serves to buoy up 
others ; but the most improved float seems to be 
one of glass, blown into an ellipsoid shape, with a 
knob at each end for attaching it, but no opening. 
These are of all sizes, from two inches long to 
eighteen inches. Every kind of fish-hook the 
most crooked imagination can think of may be 
inspected here, from the whale harpoon to the 
little bright silvered hook for herrings, which 
catches them without bait, for they rush to it 
merely to have a look. 

Among the curiosities brought out by the Ex- 
hibition was an enormous whale, which was caught 
at Goteborg, and has been admirably preserved, 
and with the mouth open, down which you enter 
into a neat room, with tables and sofas, and 
mirrors, and gauze curtains — all inside the great 
fish. Near to it was the skeleton, with every bone 
carefully reunited, down even to the rudimental 



BEAUTIFUL CITY. 



119 



joints of the second flappers, which correspond 
with the hind legs of other mammalia. 

The yiew of Stockholm from the Mose Backe 
heights is really the finest of any town I have ever 




'ODDS AND ENDS. 



seen. Water, wood, green fields, white buildings, 
red roofs, and most picturesque shipping. — Say 
where else you can find these so combined 



120 LADY CANOEISTS. 

Venice is too flat, Edinburgh wants a river, Pesth 
is formal, Moscow is dead, and Stockholm must 
have the palm if my vote is to be given. The 
picture of all in the eye is fresh with lively bustle, 
brilliant colour, and graceful form. 

In a quiet way the people here can very well 
enjoy their leisure, too. The island opposite the 
palace is free to all, even if they do not sip coffee 
under its trees, or step into the little steamer with 
its tinkling bell and miniature green and red 
lamps which will screw them off to the Deer- 
garden in five minutes for a penny. 

In London we have absolutely no place where 
in September the general public, including Mrs*. 
Bull and her prude daughters, may sit in decent 
comfort at nine p.m. under a bushy tree, and with 
gas jets illuminating the fountains and flowers 
around them, all free. When our town life is 
contrasted with that of Paris, it is easy to account 
for our defects : first, by the climate debarring us 
from evening parties out of doors, and then by our 
admirable domesticity, which makes all good folks 
assemble round the family hearth. But these 
Swedes are as homely as we Britons, and their 
climate is not more genial ; yet one sees even 
in Finland, still further norths a vast amount 
of proper enjoyment of out-door leisure which 
somehow cannot be managed in England at all. 

Ladies in England now patronize canoeing, and 
we have several fair members of our club. Double 
canoes carry man and wife, brother and sister,, 
and even two cousins (ahem !). Much amusement 
and healthful pleasure may be had thus in free 
fresh air on bright merry water. Canoes with 



TOWN LIFE. 121 

four men in each are much, used by the Cam- 
bridge University branch of the Canoe Club. 
Their annual race in " scratch fours " of this kind 
has just come off (March 11, 1872). Instead of 
the paddle with two blades the single-bladed 
paddle is best for a double canoe, as there is no 
splashing, and no " apron" required. For this 
half-paddle, it will be seen that we go to the 
Indian and the Honolulu islander, instead of 
following the Kamtchatkan in his " kyak." The 
single-bladed paddle, light, short, and handy, was 
used last summer in my Eob Koy on the Zuider 
Zee,* and I hereby strongly recommend it to fair 
" waterwornen " as the best implement for their 
propulsion. 

Stockholm is the place for a good rest, too, and 
this was needed by the crew of the Eob Eoy ; for 
with all our resolutions to abstain from too violent 
exercise, we had gradually become accustomed to 
ten hours a day in the canoe, and this is too much. 
It is a strain on nerve and .-muscle. Last year I 
worked up to that amount only at the end of a 
three months' tour, and then it brought on a re- 
action which the strongest frame must expect if 
overworked. A comfortable hotel, and plenty to 
see and to do while my boat lies resting on the 
second floor, at ease, was a wholesome interlude, 
but it is only a pause, for the sky is fair, and the 
sails must be set again to the breeze. 

* Published in c Evening Hours ' (Hunts'). With woodcuts* 



( 122 ) 



CHAPTER XII. 

"Bob Roy in the Press — Ongbots — Lake Malar — Lake 
Hjelmare — Solemn Speed — The Dannemora Mine. 

At Stockholm there was always a large crowd to 
see the canoe carried from the hotel to the water ; 
and as we sailed among the shipping, or paddled 
up the narrow lanes of water between the houses, 
the crowd ran alongside, or in front, to secure 
good places in advance. 

I once took a fancy at Venice to row a gondola 
alone ; and with very great difficulty a gondolier 
was persuaded to surrender his boat for an hour to 
my care. Very soon this novel mode of rowing, 
in which you stand up and look forwards, became 
tolerably pleasant. But when I turned out of the 
Grand Canal to some of the lesser creeks I was at 
once assailed with screams of abuse from the 
windows on each side, and all sorts of missiles 
were hurled at the gondola. There was nothing 
better to be done than to row on and bear this 
unexpected attack, which I found was directed 
against the unhappy tourist who ventures to work 
a gondola without a gondolier. Venice, now risen 
from the dust again, and linked to Italy with 
chains of love and freedom, must deck her gon- 
dolas in bright colours, as of old, and hire them out 
to all members of the Canoe Club, without throw- 
ing cabbages at them from the water-palaces. 



ROB ROY IN THE PRESS. 123 

In Stockholm, however, all was welcome, and 
smiles and bows from the fair, and off went the 
hats of the men as they shouted from above, 
*" Bravo, Englishman ! Good voyage to you." 
At one place, after returning from a delightful 
excursion on the sea side of the tow T n, I came to a 
lock, or " sluice " as they term it, but I landed, 
hauled the boat over the wall, and went on again 
steadily as before. This incident was related in 
the newspapers, and copied again and again, even 
into papers three hundred miles away. 

Winding channels, some as narrow as a garden 
w r alk, led me into the country, among high rocks, 
charming villas, bathing-houses, and orchards, 
with children playing on the grass, and ladies 
pic-nicking under the trees. This, and only this, 
is the proper way to see Stockholm thoroughly ; 
and we admired it more as we saw more of its 
beauties. But the air of the place, strange to say, 
seems by no means healthy, and while our crew 
was ashore there they had languor all the time. 

Stockholm is the very place for a canoe, or any 
other suitable pleasure-boat ; yet there were few, 
scarcely any, yachts or rowing-boats to be seen on 
the water. Not that these would be needed for 
mere locomotion, because that is admirably pro- 
vided for by other means ; but perhaps, as wealth 
increases, and men who win enough find the 
benefit to health w r hich manly exercise affords, we 
shall hear of more vigorous activity for bone and 
muscle at play than were observed in Sweden 
during my voyage. 

On the other hand, it is to be remarked that 
for the more utilitarian purpose of traffic and 



124 ONGBOTS. 

speedy carriage, the people of Stockholm make 
far better use of their rivers and lakes than we 
Londoners do of the Thames. 

The water rushes past and round everywhere 
in rich profusion, clear and deep, and people go 
almost as much by water as in Venice. The 
privilege of managing the numerous ferries used 
to belong to the women from Dalecarlia, a nor- 
thern province of this long-stretching country. 
Even after steamers were introduced, I had seen 
on my former visit some little ferry-boats worked 
by paddle-wheels turned by these great, strong, 
healthy-looking ladies, with bright red bodices (I 
think you call them) on their short waists, and 
heels very high and sharp, exactly in the centre 
of their shoes (see fig. 5, page 119). But now 
there is a fleet of lively little screw-boats — the 
most agile and convenient mode of locomotion one 
can imagine. Each of these swift, open, "ong- 
bots,"* low in the water, and elegantly shaped, has 
seats all round the edge ; and the ladies' crino- 
lines, as they get in, w 7 hisk by the fierce, white 
glow of the little furnace. The engine is in the 
middle of the passengers, and one lad manages it, 
while another sits luxuriously steering. As these 
steamers are of all sizes, some only as large as a 
small row-boat, their constant movement, and the 
puff! puff! of their tiny engines, creates an ani- 
mation on the water which relieves Stockholm 
from being dull — if, indeed, a place can ever be 
dull which rests upon the graceful eddies of a 
sunlit sea. 

* " Onga " is the Swedish for " steam ; " and this word 
seems quite of a different root from " damp " or " vapeur." 



LAKE MALAKEN. 



125 



When it was time at last to leave Stockholm, 
the wind from the west w r as so strong that I 
grudged the labour of pulling against it on a lake 
already traversed before ; and therefore I put the 




"STOCKHOLM STEAMERS. 



€anoe on a steamer running to Orebro, and stopped 
the Sunday there. This run of eight hours 
through the Malar Lake rather confirmed the 



126 LAKE HJELMARE. 

opinion (after two former visits) that, excepting in 
the direction towards Upsala, the Malar is not so 
picturesque as it is supposed to be. It lacks 
variety. 

A very large school at Orebro attracted my 
attention, where 500 lads are taught, and after a 
course of six years they may enter the University 
at Upsala. They assembled for church on Sunday 
morning, and many of the townspeople also came.. 
The pupils marched in for the service two and two, 
the great fellows of twenty walking like the 
youngest children ; and they were seated in long 
rows, with the gradations of age, or, at any rate,, 
of stature, very strictly observed. 

After church about a hundred went to bathe, 
and they jumped from high ladders and towers 
into the river, frolicking about for a long time — 
indeed, far longer than is good for health. 

The railway from this place was the first made 
in Sweden, but it had an inauspicious beginning. 
The notorious John Sadleir was chairman of the 
Company, and had won their implicit confidence, 
until he decamped with 360,000Z. — in fact, all the 
funds of the enterprise. We w r ere also told that 
the first engineers sent here from England quite 
astonished the people by their style of living in a 
country where their salaries of 500Z. a year were 
in strong contrast to the modest stipends of the 
Swedish engineers, some of whom are not .paid 
more than a tenth of that sum. 

We next visited Lake Hjelmare (on September 
1st), another great " Sje," or sea, too broad to see 
across, and rather dull on the shores ; and then had 
a long paddle up the Orebro river, and went by 



SOLEMN SPEED. 127 

rail to Toreboda, the charge for the Eob Boy 
being nil. The canoe had already travelled about 
300 miles as a parcel on the railways during this 
tour, and the expense of all this transit did not 
exceed three shillings and sixpence. 

The Swedish railways are very comfortable in 
their arrangements, and rather composed in their 
mode of action — no night trains, no fuss and 
bustle, even in the day, but a sedate and de- 
liberate steadiness, which is quite a rebuke to our 
desperate haste in England, where half our energy 
is consumed in hurrying to a place as if our lives 
depended upon doing the journey in so many 
minutes, and then rushing away from it again as 
fast as possible. 

In Sweden the train stops at least four "minuter" 
at nearly every station ; but it is very punctual in 
its whole traverse, and you find an excellent dinner, 
with twenty minutes to spend upon it, about three 
o'clock in the day. The viands are laid out on a 
central table, and every man helps himself, and 
conveys his chosen dainties to some side table, 
where he can sit down comfortably to enjoy soup, 
fish, meat, vegetables in profusion, pudding and 
pastry, coffee, thick cream, and a half mottle of 
ale, the whole to be paid for by the small sum 
of eighteen-pence ! 

There is a deep iron mine in Sweden, very 
celebrated for its ore, which is said to be the best 
in the world, and is all brought to England. The 
Armstrong guns are made from this iron, because 
it is so tough that it may be rolled into a long 
strip, and then coiled round a " mandril " or centre 
piece, and afterwards hammered so as to unite 



128 THE DANNEMOKA MINE. 

all the joints into the strong tube of a huge 
cannon. 

The iron must be tough indeed which can stand 
the tremendous strain of 100 lbs. of powder fired 
inside, with a force that will shoot forth a ball 
600 lbs. weight, to leap over five miles at a bound. 
In one of my former visits to Sweden, a French- 
man was travelling with me, when a visit to 
this mine of Dannemora was proposed, so we hired 
a carriage and went together; and as it was a 
curious place to see, perhaps the reader would 
like to hear about it. We put up first at Upsala, 
a quiet, dull, over-grown village, with a celebrated 
university, exceedingly ugly too. The curator of 
the museum was a funny old man, with a brown 
wrinkled face like a walnut, and green spectacles 
upon his nose. He was very civil to us. He 
liked to show his curiosities to an Englishman 
and a Frenchman travelling together. Eain fell 
in the unlively streets of Upsala, on our return to 
the inn, and a few people pattered about in 
wooden clogs, the sound of which echoed drearily 
along the wet pavement. It was a " stupid 
place " for the traveller who voyages for excite- 
ment, or scenery, or pictures, or music, or fetes, 
or bustle ; and almost all travellers, especially 
French ones, must have one or more of these 
pleasures, or the journey becomes a drowsy task. 

But this Frenchman was intelligent and agree- 
able, so we chatted by the fire together (it was 
cold outside), and settled to start next morning 
in the dark, at four o'clock : indeed, he was one 
of the very few Frenchmen I have met who were 
travelling for pleasure and improvement, not for 



THE DANNEMOKA MINE. 129 

business or science. He could not speak English, 
though he eagerly desired to do so, and when, in 
the steamers on the Swedish lakes, or along the 
Gulf of Bothnia, or amid the islands of Finland, 
he heard Swedish ladies speaking to me in 
JEnglish, and saw them reading our English 
books, he came near and listened and sighed, 
because our pleasant talk was all a blank to him. 

Next day, then, we rattled along together in 
the carriage till we came to the mines of Danne- 
niora. The appearance of this place was quite 
different from that of any iron mine that I have 
visited. It was something like the slate-quarries 
near Penrhyn in Wales — a large and open pit, the 
edges of which are perfectly vertical, and go 
down, clown, down into the darkness 500 feet 
below. 

The mouth of the pit is seven acres in extent 
— a terrible vast chasm as you peer over the 
ecke. For three centuries men have been min- 

o 

ing there, and the deeper they dig the richer is 
the ore. 

It is a wonderful thing to look into the crater 
of Vesuvius, and far more wonderful to gaze into 
the crater of Etna, that smoking bowl a mile and 
a half round the edge, but to see into this iron 
mine, where human hands had dug so deep, was 
a grand sight truly. 

If you took St. Paul's Cathedral in London, 
and set it in this pit, the cross on the top of the 
dome would still be far below the surface, and 
yet we could see many men at the bottom, or 
clinging to ledges at the sides, and hammering 
away — little pigmies as they seemed — with a 

K 



130 THE DANNEMOKA MINE. 

faint clinking noise, only to be heard when all! 
was still around, as Aye lay down flat near the 
edge, and put our heads over to listen. 

The man who showed the place took us to the 
engine for lowering the workmen into this pit.. 
It was a rude, creaking wheel, w r orked by two 
clumsy oxen that turned a wooden drum, and so 
wound up or let down a very thin iron rope with 
an open bucket at the end. 

After we had gazed for some time into the 
depth in silence, the man asked, "Would you 
like to go down?" Each of us looked at the 
other and smiled. Neither of us wished to go 
down, but neither of us wished the other to think 
he was " afraid ;" so the jealousy of English and 
French, and the want of moral courage to say 
"No!" made us both agree to descend, though 
nothing new w r as to be seen below, and indeed 
nothing was there which could not be seen from 
above with our telescope. 

However, as neither of us dared to draw back,, 
the man hooked the open bucket on the thin iron 
cord, and the bullocks were harnessed to the 
crazy wheel, and we stept into the bucket, and 
held round each other's waists, for there w r as> 
scarcely room in the pail for two to stand. Each 
of us tried to appear composed, and I lighted a 
cigar, and when the Swede said, " Are you ready ?"' 
we were swung up in an instant, and in another 
moment w T ere hanging free over this awful depth. 
As the oxen went round, and the iron wire un- 
coiled (with horrid jerks, too, that seemed as if 
they surely must snap it), the bucket went gra- 
dually down. 



THE DANNEMORA MINE. 131 

The sensation was very peculiar, and quite 
different from that of going down a coal-pit, or 
any other mine, where the shaft is only a narrow 
hole, however deep it may be ; for in going down 
these ordinary mines or coal-pits, you cannot see 
more than a few yards beneath, so the full depth 
from the dizzy height is never quite realised by 
the mind. 

But here it was all day-light, and open on every 
side, and as the bucket dropped down slowly it 
turned round and round so as to bring all the 
hideous abyss into full view, and the crags and 
caves and jutting points of rock, which seemed to 
move up and come nearer to us as we went down 
to them. Presently the bucket began to shake, 
and the iron wire was quivering. Both of us were 
trembling, too. He said it was my fault, but I 
was sure that he was giving way. This, however, 
was certain, that if either of us became giddy, or 
faint, or even nervous, so as to lose his hold, one, 
or most likely both, would instantly have tumbled 
out of the pail. 

Eight minutes — an hour it seemed — having 
been spent in the descent, we reached the bottom, 
where the workmen received us with cheers, and 
then fired several blasts of gunpowder as a salute. 
We inspected all the operations carried on in this 
nether region, but I will own that the pleasure of 
doing this was clogged by the recollection, " We 
have to get up again." 

This feeling spoils much of the delight of 
visiting a cave, or a difficult or dangerous mine, 
when you have attained the spot you are to reach, 
by crawling through some long dark passage with 

K 2 



THE DANXEMORA MIKE. 133 

only a few inches or more to spare, and the sensa- 
tion present all the time " If the rocks shift here 
in the least, I shall never get out again." 

What toil and trouble and danger men will 
encounter to get at stones that have gold in 
them ! 

How little do we labour for the true riches 
which are " better than gold ! " 

Our bucket soon began to go up again, and the 
cheers of the miners sounded fainter as we left 
them far below. One could not help feeling that 
if any part of the thin, much worn iron rope, not 
thicker than one's little finger, were to snap now, 
there would be instant death ! Thus fragile is the 
thread of life for all of us, and thus uncertain, and 
yet we plod on, and laugh, and sleep, and sing. 
How is it possible that any sensible man can live 
in any sort of contentment unless he has got a 
better hope of a better life when this short spell 
is over! Surely it is a mad infatuation which 
keeps men careless about eternity, and a heartless 
ingratitude which keeps them cold to the love of 
Him who died to make us safe for ever. 



( 134 ) 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Midnight Music — Catechism — Law and Justice — Mobbed 
on the Kail — Good Dog — A Linguist — From Yenern 
— Sinking Bock. 

The canoe skipper had set liis mind upon another 
pull on Lake Venern ; and they said a steamer 
might pass along the canal to the lake that night, 
so we determined to wait for this, and meanwhile 
took a long sail in the West Gotha Canal. Being 
without any luggage in the boat, and so near a dry 
change if it should be overset, I became quite 
reckless in sailing hither and thither in the very 
strong gale which now commenced and lasted for 
a week. A great heavy sloop passed on the canal, 
towed by two bullocks at one mile an hour. 
Another was hauled along by women, and we 
noticed a female hodman pulling up mortar by 
a long rope to the top of a house. 

Night came, so I had to lie down in my clothes, 
ready for the warning whistle of any passing 
steamer, which would have to be boarded by 
the Eob Eoy in the dark. The hours passed 
wearily. When I tried to keep awake sleep stole 
upon my eyelids, and strange dreams flitted 
through my mind, ending in a start up suddenly 
for the steamer's whistle, but it was only the 
shrill music of the wind. Then when I tried 
to sleep wakefulness came on perversely, and 



MIDNIGHT MUSIC. 135 

-thoughts of home and England coursed through 
my brain in rapid march, but linked together 
only in confusion. 

The night was wintry cold, the wind shook the 
doors, and the rain pelted on the windows gloomily. 
One solitary light in a neighbouring house had 
long been a sort of companion to me as I gazed 
into the dark betimes ; at last this too paled down 
to nothing, and all was blackness. Even my last 
bit of candle had burned down, and vain was the 
search for more among many rooms, all with open 
doors and snoring inmates. Just as it seemed 
most lonely and all asleep but me, beautiful music 
came through the wall — the chords of a piano, 
softly played, and slow. It was the post-master, 
who rose up to render on the keys some pretty 
morceau he had been dreaming of in bed. The 
sound of music, and such sweet tones, too, was 
quite a comfort in this solitary hour; and it was a 
pleasure to find that the performer is well known 
for his excellent taste for harmony — that source 
of universal enjoyment. 

The station-masters on the railways are usually 
.retired captains of steamboats — men accustomed 
to deal with foreigners, and to be prompt and 
punctual in their times. The guards in the trains 
are selected from the former stage-coachmen; so 
that all parties are provided for by the railway, 
which at first seems to displace them from employ- 
ment. 

Among the numerous visitors to the canoe was 
•a tall, clever, gentlemanly man, who was eagerly 
curious as to the boat and its journeys. When he 
saw a tract he laughed outright, and tried to 



136 . CATECHISM. 

induce the other spectators to join in his ridicule 
of this mode of presenting religious truth, as likely 
"to make it vulgar." But laughter is quenched 
by a solemn tone ; and in French-Swedish, as 
well as in my own native tongue, he was soon 
brought into a more serious mood. He could not 
answer the questions, "When is religion 'out of 
place ' ? If it is inconsistent with what a man is 
doing, which ought to give way — the man's ac- 
tions or the religion ? What place do you give 
religion ; and, during last week, how often has it 
had any place whatever in your conduct or your 
thoughts ? " 

For, indeed, it does seem, on reflection, that 
eternity, spirit, and the other life ought to have 
the main field of thought in every breast ; and it 
is for this world, sense, and time to justify their 
places, as interlopers on the grander themes. 
Religion is not to be " dragged in " indeed, but is 
it to be " dragged out " from its rightful place — 
the throne of the heart ? 

This being the very first instance in which 
levity had been shown while I had given about 
1000 tracts to rich and poor in this and my former 
journey, it is a pleasure to mention that it ended 
well ; for the gentleman seemed ashamed, and not 
only received the little paper, but asked me to 
write my name upon it, and he wrote his own 
name underneath. 

On another occasion an Englishwoman asked 
permission to state her case, saying her father had 
died, and had left her some money by will ; but 
not one penny had she received, and she had 
applied to the Swedish Courts in vain, " for they 



MOBBED ON THE BAIL. 137 

would not attend to you unless you had money." 
She wished me to speak to her English relations 
to help her, if I " ever happened to meet any of 
them ; " but I at once promised to inquire into 
the matter on my return, and not to wait until 
some unlikely chance might bring me in contact 
with the good lady's relatives.* 

The gale, which was of unusual violence, and 
had been telegraphed from Paris as likely to visit 
the Baltic, probably detained the steamers, for 
none came past, so we went on by rail to Gote- 
borg, and determined to go by steamer from thence 
to Lake Yenern, to accomplish the resolve as to 
one more paddle on its broad bosom. 

The canoe was as much mobbed in the train as 
in the water by visitors. At every station there 
was a crowd about the parcel van to see it; and 
often a whole train was emptied of passengers, 
who flocked from their carriages to look at the 
travelled hyak. But in England, too, these boats 
are novelties ; and what think you was the name 
they were scheduled under, when two canoes came 
to a Midland station, and the head office was asked 
how they should be charged? Answer by tele- 
gram, " Charge them as invalid chairs — the double 
price of perambulators." Shade of the paddle 
end, what an indignity! 

The same Captain Dahlander, whom we had 
met at Carlstad, had his steamer for this trip ; 
and here was again his faithful, well-remembered, 

* "We much regret to be compelled to remark that the 
bandage round the eyes of " Justice," when holding the scales,, 
in Sweden, is said, on good authority, to admit some rays of 
golden lig;ht. 



138 



GOOD DOG. 



curious old bottle, shaped like a dog, with its 
glass legs, and the tail for a handle, from whose 
mouth he had poured a " nip " of brandy, just in 
time to save me from a chill, and probably from 
cholera, when embarking, wet and weary, on board 
his tidy craft some weeks before. 




"CAPTAIN DAHLANDEli's DOG BRANDY." 



It was a long day of driving rain, but when we 
reached Venersborg, on the lake, this captain and 
another, and an Englishman and myself, had 
supper on shore, and then a curious conversation, in 

which Captain S showed his marvellous power 

of language by speaking even in the same sentence 
Swedish, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, 
Italian, Eussian, and even Irish with the purest 



A LINGUIST. 139 

Skibbereen brogue. This talented gentleman in- 
terested me very much; and a few days afterwards 
lie mentioned that when he had used an oath in 
our conversation the rebuke of his British pas- 
senger went to his heart " like a knife," that he 
had next day told his mate of the incident, and 
was so much ashamed of the oath that he much 
wished to see me again. So now when we happily 
met once more there was room for useful talk ; 
since, however engaging other things may be, 
there is one great topic of universal interest and 
of eternal import — the death and resurrection of 
Christ and His atonement for sin. It was very 
curious to find a man of deep metaphysical turn 
and reflective mind labouring in such a sphere, 
and still more interesting to observe (what we 
are so prone to forget) that a kind reproof is not 
without effect, even if at the time it may seem to 
fall unheeded. He gladly accepted a copy of the 
" Loss of the Kent East Indiaman," with this in- 
scription, " From the Captain of the Bob Eoy to 
the Captain of the Eos." In return he gave me 
his portrait. 

The great Lake Venern is 143 feet above the 
sea, and it has more than thirty rivers pouring 
volumes of water into it, but only one stream 
issues from the lake to the sea ; and so great must 
be the evaporation from the hundreds of square 
miles of this inland sea, that this outlet seems to 
be less in volume than several of the great rivers 
which flow into the lake. Still, as the deep and 
angry flood of overflow tumbles down a precipice 
under the railway bridge 100 feet wide, one sees 
that the great Venern has a good deal of water to 



140 FKOM VENEBN. 

spare. After inspecting a tabular record of the fall 
and rise of the water in this lake since 1819, 
varying some 16 feet in the extremes, there 
seemed to be no rule or law discernible as to the 
relation between the amount of rain falling and 
the fulness of the water. Probably the other 
elements that affect this are the wet and dry 
winds, and the atmospheric conditions which de- 
termine the amount of evaporation. 

The Gota river rushes out of Venern with a 
series of mad bounds and vigorous plunges, noisily. 
The eddies and regurgitations caused by this violent 
exercise produce some eccentric phenomena, one of 
which I drove to see, in a pretty wooded glen. 
This is called the "minute tide," in which a swelling 
of the water once every minute fills up and empties 
again a quiet pool a little withdrawn from the 
river s course. No explanation, it seems, has been 
given of this periodic wave ; but of course there is 
some regular recurrence of causes which conspire 
to fill up the pool and then subside, the rise ap- 
pearing to be about a foot in depth. 

Not long after this, when we had paddled into a 
sequestered bay on this same Gota river, a very 
curious incident occurred. 

I had debarked upon a rock islet only a few feet 
long ; and the canoe was lying alongside, as usual, 
while we rearranged the outfit, provisions, sails, 
and fishing-tackle. 

A strong current gurgled in deep eddies just 
outside, and a wave or two sometimes lapped my 
feet. One or two of these waves, having come up 
higher than usual, I noticed with surprise that 
the water was evidently rising, and indeed it had 



SINKING ROCK. 141 

nearly covered the little rock, and was floating 
the canoe. 

Immediately the thought occurred that this 
was another event like the " minute tide/' near 
Venersborg, described above ; and we expected to 
see it soon subside, with no worse consequence than 
wet feet for our crew. 

But no, the water rose still, and the isle was 
covered, and — oh, horrible certainty ! — at last it 
was plain beyond doubt that the island itself was 
slowly sinking. The surprise, fear, and strangeness 
all commingled in this sight it is quite impossible 
to describe. That a solid rock should steadily go 
down and leave me in deep water was a thing un- 
heard of, unthought of, and which no one could be 
prepared for. 

The worst was the gradual sinking — had it 
been immediate, of course I should have only had 
to swim to the canoe ; but the mysterious uncer- 
tainty made me lose that decision which danger is 
always met with by a sort of instinct when you 
are used to it, and especially if you have previously 
contemplated it as at all possible. 

Thus, instead of instant action to get away, I 
kept dancing and turning on the rock — now well 
out of sight and below water — until at length, with 
a strange momentary panic, I stepped on the 
arched deck of the canoe, and actually managed, 
by some extraordinary balancing manoeuvre, to 
walk along this into the boat from her bows — a feat 
not to be performed in cold blood, even if you 
started from the solid ground. 

Thoroughly wet, and panting with the intense 
excitement, and laughing, too, at the extreme odd- 



142 SINKING ROCK. 

ness of the whole affair, the captain was some- 
time before he could restore order among the 
ship's company, and things settled down to their 
regular way. 

Meanwhile the current had borne us from the 
place, so it was not properly investigated ; but the 
inquiring canoeist who seeks the spot is directed 
to the second bay round the east corner, past 
the fisherman's hut. Probably the explanation 
of the occurrence is that a huge rock detached 
from the shore had rolled into deep water, and 
happened to be poised on its end, until my weight 
gradually inclined it outwards, when it toppled 
over slowly into the darker, deeper depths below. 



( 143 ) 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Bravo! — White Squall — Trolhatta Falls —'Urchins — Pri- 
soner — Fishing Sailing — The Whirlpools — Spying — 
Pretty Sophy — Thanks, Gentlemen ! 

The gale and the rain still continued on Lake 
Venern; but we launched the Kob Eoy on the 
waves amid the plaudits of the spectators and their 
best wishes for my voyage. The wind was south- 
west, right in my teeth, and I had a hard pull to 
breast it ; but then the current of water was with 
me, and when this expanded into Lake Vassbotten 
the voyage became exceedingly interesting. It 
was here that in the murky distance I noticed a 
steamer coming, and steered straight for her, to 
show to all on board how well the canoe behaved 
in heavy surf. Just as we neared each other a 
loud cheer came from behind me. This was from 
the crowded decks of another steamer, which had 
overtaken me unperceived because of the deafening 
sound of the wind ; and as now all the passengers 
and crews of both steamers cheered and waved 
handkerchiefs, crying, " Bravo, Eob Eoy ! " it 
must be owned that the little boat felt a thrill of 
honest pride in its heart (of oak), and dashed the 
white spray from its yellow breast with an exuber- 
ance of buoyant energy. As for the captain of 
the canoe, he, of course, was quite impassive under 
all these compliments ; for there are certain feel- 



144 



BRAVO ! 



ings, such as pride or vanity or insincerity, which 
we weak mortals are supposed never to feel, or, at 
any rate, nobody must ever acknowledge that he 
is affected by them. 




Soon after this a dense black cloud came loom- 
ing up, and at first so very slowly that it looked 
all the more unpleasantly mysterious as to what 



WHITE SQUALL. 145 

• 

would be the result of our meeting ; then a lull 
came, and it was plain now we were to have one 
of those terrible white squalls which cover the 
water with foam whisked from the crest of every 
wave, and borne along on the blast in a level 
shower of spray, which instantly blinds your eyes 
just at the time when the most careful steering is 
required. To avoid this, I paddled swiftly to land, 
and pulled up the boat on a low, bleak, lonely 
islet, where only a cow seemed to live, and a very 
amazed cow it was. But still there was a sort of 
shed even here ; and in dire necessity it appeared 
just possible to find shelter there during the worst 
of the hurricane. But, alas ! this was a very bad 
move indeed, for the hut was full of water, and 
ankle deep in mud ; and as I clung to the bare 
wooden planks outside — for it was impossible to 
get in — I was in constant fear that the wind would 
carry my canoe bodily away. 

The fierce power of these blasts had been already 
proved in the yard of the hotel where they had 
turned my boat over, and compelled me actually 
to hold the canoe down upon the ground with my 
hands. On this occasion every article I could spare, 
even my thick shoes, had been left behind me in the 
reserve luggage, so as to be light for the rapids. 

It was this proof of the power of the wind that 
made me land now to avoid this one squall — the 
only one the Bob Boy ever " shirked " — and now 
we were in a far worse plight on shore, completely 
soaked, and covered with mud ; though, perhaps, 
had we faced the storm at this time on the water, 
the wind might have lifted both me and my canoe 
fairly off the waves. 

L 



146 TROLHATTA FALLS. 

The squall passed as quickly as it came, and 
out burst the genial sun as we floated into the 
Carl's Graf Canal, and then on the rapid current 
pleasantly down to Trolhatta, where a good hotel 
and good dinner and dry clothes soon rubbed away 
all remembrance of the hard times endured — sea- 
sons of exciting interest which arouse the pluck 
and nerve 'the muscle of the canoeist, and which 
are the very charms of such a journey as this. 

The well-known Trolhatta Falls are certainly 
worth seeing, as the strong river breaks its great 
smooth body upon the stronger rocks, and writhes 
about, dashing up high foam, roaring its loudest 
and hissing in defiance as its torrent forces a 
passage to the sea. The navigation of the river 
is conducted round these cataracts by locks, in a 
canal lowering you about 120 feet in two hours of 
tedious work. The passage is curiously cut 
through the solid rock, and winding here and there, 
so that it would seem impossible for a steamer 
ever to get through, but a dozen of them will pass 
in a clay, and not one will even graze the sides, so 
marvellous is the skill of the Swedish sailors — by 
far the best for this work that I have ever seen. 

Of course it amused them immensely to see the 
canoe avoid the whole proceeding by my pulling 
her out on the grass, and running down at a good 
trot, while the Bob Roy glided smoothly over the 
green turf, pulled by my hand. A number of boys 
ran after us, one of them, who helped at a lock, I 
gave a penny to, and he actually followed for some 
miles, and caught me at another lock, where 
another penny made him supremely happy. An- 
other urchin who was carrying one end of the boat 



"URCHINS* 147 

happened to slip, and let her bounce on the ground. 
He ran away at once, afraid and quite ashamed, 
but a host of ready successors] rushed forward to 
claim the vacant post. They were all much as- 
tonished when I gave the first boy w r ho had slipped 
twice as much as the new aide, for, poor fellow, he 
could not help his slip, and he had come twice as 
far as the other. It is not easy to forget the 
pleased look of gratitude he gave me for thus 
'reinstating him in his position, and for silencing 
the gibes of his rivals. 

We have heard these little fellows talking for 
[hours about the canoe. "I have seen it," says 
one ; " Seen it ! " says another, with contempt. 
"Why, the Englishman gave me his sponge to 
hold ; " and then this privileged character becomes 
.at once the centre of information to all the rest. 
On one occasion a little lad and a man carried the 
boat through a town ; and after it was set clown for 
a, moment or so to rest, the man took his place at 
the front end of the boat, but the boy entreated 
for his old place, and began to cry, until I found 
that he wished to be in the front as before — the 
proud leader of the usual long procession that ac- 
companies the crew on shore. 

To cite one more out of many amusing instances 
of juvenile curiosity. After the canoe had been 
safely locked up in an out-house, and hours had 
passed away, there were still two boys seen at the 
door, struggling to look through the chinks, one of 
them lying flat on the ground for that purpose. It 
seems that a third boy had secreted himself inside 
the house, to get a better view of the boat ; but he 
now found he was imprisoned there, and a long 

' L 2 



148 



FISHING SAILING. 



confabulation of whispers had been carried on with 
his playmates outside — the point being still un- 
settled as to whether he ought to beg for release, 
and bear the punishment of discovery, or remain a 
prisoner all night. 

The weather cleared up as we slowly descended 
the beautiful Gota, fishing both with the rod and 




fly and with a long line and trolling hook, sailing 
all the time ; but I do not advise the young paddler 
to have two lines out at once when he sails down 
a deep and rapid stream. It is a bit of aquatic 
management which taxes all the attention even of 
one who know r s his boat perfectly well. 

When we came to the upper rapids, which, in a 
rash moment, we had promised to pass in the boat, 



THE WHIRLPOOLS. 149 

there was a crowd ready to see the expected over- 
set; but, after landing for a deliberate survey, I 
made up my mind that it could well be done. The 
waves were of the usual character, and there was 
nothing to fear from these, formidable as they 
might appear. But there were two unaccountable 
whirlpools of great size, about fifty feet broad, and 
depressed more than a foot in the centre. Happily 
I had found some whirlpools of this kind upon the 
Ehine last year; and the opportunity had been 
used to practise crossing them until I thoroughly 
mastered the proper method. 

It will be understood that if a boat is in a whirl- 
pool, the effect upon it is simply to turn it rapidly 
round ; and, if the boat is not going at speed, 
there is nothing more than a little giddiness in 
the sensation. 

But if you are- going at full speed down a rapid, 
and suddenly enter a whirlpool, the water does in 
reality take hold of the bottom of the boat at one 
-end and forcibly drag it to one side, while the 
general motion being onward, the result will in- 
fallibly be an upset, unless you act wisely. The 
proper thing to do is to stop the speed of the boat 
as much as possible, and to lean inivards (not 
outwards, as there is always a desire to do), just 
as the acrobat in a circus leans towards the centre 
more and more, the faster the horse he is riding 
gallops round the ring. The only difficulty in 
this case was to discern on which side of the boat 
the outer sweep of the whirl would first catch her, 
for the course towards this spot w r as by no means 
straight, but had to be regulated by the large 
waves crossing it at the foot of the rapid. We 



150 SPYING. 

spent about half-an-hour in a very careful exami- 
nation of all the bearings of this place, though the 
people were very impatient, and, indeed, some got 
tired, and went away. 

There is often a certain amount of hasty desire 
to " have done with it " in the mind of a canoeist, 
when a place of this kind has to be passed ; and 
it is just on such an occasion that deliberate 
examination is desirable, for this impatience must 
not be yielded to, or dire may be the result. Pro- 
bably some neglect of such precautions caused the 
various upsets which younger members of the 
Canoe Club have had to put up with in more 
homely places ; and I cannot but suggest that 
careful examination beforehand is quite as neces- 
sary as bold execution when once the actual pas- 
sage is begun.* 

Thus the two whirlpools on the Gota were 
easily passed, and the spectators cheered, as they 
would have done, no doubt, had she been turned 
upside down. 

In a pretty nook under very thick trees I 
cooked my last dinner on the rivers of Sweden, 
and thought pleasantly upon a tour never to bo 
forgotten by me for its interest and pleasant 
variety. Soon a little steamer passed, and I 
dashed out to her, and pulled my canoe on her 
deck. There was a Swedish girl on board, who 
was reading an English book, and with a dictionary 
to make out the hard words, so I employed the 

* The happy success of the Eob Eoy in six voyages — in 
which she never turned back, and was never turned over — 
was, no doubt, affected by luck when it was thought to be 
effected by pluck. 



THANKS, GENTLEMEN. 151 

time in giving her a lesson, gratis, and then drew 
her portrait ; and (to be candid), wrote under it 
the words " Pretty Sophy." 

Next the Eob Roy was put on another steamer, 
still smaller ; and lo ! there is on board our 

amusing linguist, Captain S , her commodore. 

The engine of this steamer, however, soon broke 
down, and after an examination I found it was the 
air-pump cylinder which had snapped in two. The 
engineer was a helpless sort of being, but he took 
advice from the Englishman, for they think, some- 
how, all Britons are mechanics, and we wrapped a 
cloth round the wheezing pump, and so hobbled 
on till Goteborg was reached again at night. 

Next day I made a tour of the pretty town in 
the canoe, traversing its canals and carrying the 
boat over obstacles in the streets, until the crowd 
running after the Rob Roy got breathless in the 
pursuit. 

Before leaving Sweden, it seemed to be a good 
.and proper thing to write a letter to the news- 
papers, thanking the numerous persons, both rich 
and poor, whose hospitality we had enjoyed ; and 
it may be predicted with certainty that if any 
other member of our Canoe Club brings his 
boat here, he will have a most kind reception.* 
There cannot be a better wish for him than that 
he may enjoy as thoroughly as I have done this 
charming unique journey on the lakes and rivers 
of Norway and Sweden. 

* This has been fully realized several times (1872). 



( 152 ) 



CHAPTER XV. 



Paper Money — Scraps — Mulled Claret — The Volunteers — 
Swedish National Air — Swedish Soldiers — Over the 
Sound — Betsy Jane — A Challenge — Copenhagen — 
Tie to the Dane. 

How is it that we Britons cannot keep grave as 
foreigners do, when a man speaks to us in a ridi- 
culous travesty of our own language ? 

Times and times I must have spoken thus to 
them ; but they never laughed, nor even twitched 
their lips to keep from laughing at me. Yet, often 
I had difficulty to restrain at least a smile when 
a man would enter, hat in hand, as a deputation 
from visitors outside (the regulation being that 
at least five must assemble before we could open, 
the canoe exhibition, and lecture for a new 
audience), " Excuse, sir, we wish boten for see." 
On one occasion a strange-looking character 
opened my bedroom door, and putting in his 
head, he uttered the word " Shavvy ? " To which I 
replied " No shavvy." He was the Court barber ; 
and he knew not that razors were cut dead by the 
Kob Eoy. 

Then, again, there was the money of Sweden — 
the amusing little bank notes, of which a bundle 
do not come to ten shillings. All sorts of banks 
rise, flourish, and pour forth a paper stream, and 
yet nobody examines any one of the notes. None 



SCRAPS. 153 

of the banks break — that is good, in sooth ; but 
forgery must be easy and profitable, and, indeed, 
it is very prevalent, according to the Crime 
Beturns. 

Under this head we may observe that the 
capital punishment applied in Sweden is beheading 
by the sword ; and that when evidence is brought 
forward, short of the direct testimony of two wit- 
nesses, the accused is not executed unless he con- 
fesses his guilt, but he may be kept in prison for 
life. We were informed that in such cases 
prisoners nearly always do confess, preferring 
death with a relieved conscience to perpetual 
confinement. Trials are conducted before three 
judges, and an appeal lies to three others ; but 
these six are, in fact, a permanent jury, and there 
is no other. 

The post office in Scandinavia does not appear 
to be well managed at all. Frequently, and 
during each of my tours, my letters were lost. 
The electric telegraph we used only once, and then 
a message went forty-four miles in seven hours — 
rather a mild trotting pace.* 

No ruins — this is a defect painfully felt in 
travelling here, just as it is in America. You 
pine for a roofless abbey or a battered castle; 
and the woods lack character without a moated 
grange. Often on the lakes there seemed to be a 
proud old tower reared against the sky on some 

* The grand news of the telegraph-cable being laid between 
England and America reached me on a wild lake in Sweden. 
News by the former cable had reached me in a wild f of est of 
Xew Brunswick. 

May peace throb through the wire instantly and for ever ! 



154 MULLED CLABET. 

distant headland ; but when we paddled to it 
there was no warder keep, and the thing was only 
rock. 

These, you see, are scraps from the stray chips 
of our log, which must be gathered up before 
leaving Sweden ; and it shows we have come to 
the end. Heigho ! — or Hoity Toity ! — whichever 
of these words is the right thing to say ; not that 
either of them is ever spoken. 

One more dinner ashore, and so what soup shall 
we order ? Any you please, except that particular 
hard-named one which came once when we ex- 
pected a nice hot basin of something, and there 
was brought in, with all gravity, a plate of cold 
clear soup with a lump of ice floating in it. 

This is worse than mulled claret sent up in 
a butter-boat, as we had once in Italy, and with a 
tea-cup for a ladle. 

And with our hot soup let us have a glass of 
white port wine, i.e., the wine of its true colour, 
not the logwood-port, cooked and painted for John 
Bull. 

The steamer Svea is a most popular boat run- 
ning from Goteborg to Copenhagen, so she is 
crammed with passengers, including the crew of 
the Eob Eoy and their boat. After a pleasant 
passage the steamer is paddling through the 
Sound, with Denmark on the right-hand and 
Sweden on the left; and the captain yields to 
my request to lower the canoe there and then 
into the sea, to the great surprise and amazement 
of all. on board. 

Away goes the Svea ; and the engineer of the 
Eob Eoy receives the command " Ahead easy," 



THE VOLUNTEERS. 155 

while the natives of Helsingborg in Sweden line 
the shore, amazed to see a canoe approaching them 
from outside. She was soon housed in the little 
inn, where she will rest the Sunday, while her 
crew will go to church in the old brick Minster, 
not built by Pugin. 

And it is on Sunday that, when evening falls, 
there come the volunteers with their flags and 
bands ; for there has been some rifle-shooting, and 
the prizemen at least are content. Volunteering 
has made great progress in Sweden, where the 
"skarpsjuters " march about and fire for prizes as 
we do in England. There are 40,000 of them, 
and they are clothed in a dark blue uniform, with 
a neat cap, and black accoutrements. They pay 
for their arms and uniform, and have from the 
Government only a small subsidy for prizes and 
expenses. Their exercise being always on Sundays, 
I had no opportunity of being present at their 
drill ; but the newspapers continually refer to 
them, and it is evident that the force is popular, 
and deserves the interest with which it is re- 
garded. 

These volunteers are never tired of playing one 
particular air, which I had heard also sung by 
Miss Kjerstin with her tinkling guitar ; and so it 
is printed on the next page from memory, but we 
think pretty exact. This national air, called tho 
" Bjorneborgarnes Marsch," is a Finland quick 
step — (played in the Hall of the Dancing Bear ?) 



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SWEDISH SOLDIEKS. 15T 

Here is a translation of it — 

Bjorneborgarnes March. 

Translated by M. A. G. 

Children of a race which bled 

On Narva's heath, on Poland's sand, 

On Leipsic's plains, on Liitzen's height; 

Still Finland in unconquered strength can shed 

Her foeman's blood in crimsoned fields of fight ! 

Glorious of deed ! Our fathers proudly call ; 
Our swords are .sharp, our blood pours free, — 
Then forward bravely ! battle, one and all, 
To keep the path of world-old Liberty ! 

Blest standard ! raise thy faded colours high — 
With combats worn, with ancient glories grey — 
On ! on ! and float above triumphantly — 
One remnant still of thee will guide our way ! 

Hence ! hence, rest and peace be gone ! 

A storm is nigh, — it flashes fire, 

And cannons roar in thund'ring ire — 

In serried ranks press closely on; 

Our Sires' brave spirits on brave sons lookjlown. 

A musical martial Swede thus writes on the 
subject: — "The march you mention is one that 
every Swede loves, as it was played by the bands 
of the Swedish regiments in many a dreadful 
battle during the unhappy, though glorious war of 
1808 and 1809 in Finland — where, in some thirty 
to forty degrees below zero, the Swedes, half 
naked and starved, had to fight the Eussians as 
one to ten. That soldiery fought like brave men, 
but the Government did not back the army, and 
that was the reason why, when the news came 
back to Sweden, we quietly deposed our King 
Gustavus Adolphus IV. * * * 



158 SWEDISH SOLDIERS. 

" The Swedish volunteers number about 40,000, 
but are not exactly on the same footing as the 
English volunteers, as we get no rifles here from 
the Government, nor any capital grant ; the only 
thing we get here is a kind of adjutant, called 
" commanding officer," who is generally an officer 
of the line at the same time. They shoot very 
well indeed, but, like the Belgians, never at 
greater distances than 200 to 250 yards. The 
officers have not officers' names, as in England, 
but are called chief of company, chief of sub- 
division, &c. 

" The militia (bevaringen) is compulsory so far, 
that every man from the age of twenty-one to the 
age of forty is bound to go into the ranks to 
defend his own country; but he can never be 
taken out of the country. Every man is drilled 
a fortnight in the spring, at the age of twenty-one 
and twenty-two — thus a month altogether — at 
the camp of the regiment of line of the district, 
and by their officers. All men from twenty-one to 
twenty-five are called out first in case of war — 
and they are some 130,000 to 150,000. They are 
armed and clad by Government during their two 
years' drills and in case of war, -when they are put 
in to complete the regiments, so as not to have 
new troops by themselves. 

" I suppose you know how our army is arranged. 
We have only some 5000 men — guards, marines, 
engineers, &c. — and some 3000 artillery, who get 
their pay in money ; the remainder are portioned 
out over the country thus : — In every county, or 
rather (land) lord-lieutenancy, there is a regiment ; 
and peasants and landowners have to grant a 



OVER THE SOUND. 159 

house and a certain piece of land to the soldiers 
(the landowner, of course, being saved other taxes 
and onera instead), which piece of land the soldier 
uses for himself; the landowner being bound, in 
case of war, and during the annual camps, to take 
care of his harvest, &c. Then each regiment 
meets at a camp every year for about three weeks' 
drill. 

" The officers of the cavalry and line are paid 
in the same manner ; they have a certain sum of 
money, and then a house and piece of land, accord- 
ing to their rank, given (and the house kept in 
condition) by the Government. 

" For all that, the Swedish soldier — who gets a 
pension when he gets old in the service — is very 
well drilled indeed — much better than the French, 
army ; and, as the officers always must live within 
their regiment, they are known and beloved by 
their men, w r ho would willingly go into fire and 
death for them. There is not an instance in 
history of a Swedish regiment having left their 
officers. This arrangement was made by Charles 
the Eleventh in the latter half of the seventeenth 
century — somewhere about 1680, I believe." 

Helsingborg is, no doubt, a very old town, for 
surely the entrance to the Baltic must always have 
been an important place for ships, and also for 
men ; and now that Eussia claims the Sound as an 
appanage in the dowry of the Princess Dagmar, 
this ancient strait is more than ever interesting. 
This is the day we are to cross over it from 
Sweden to Denmark. It sounds grand as a feat 
to do, but the passage is at most only three or 
four miles ; and in a gloriously fine morning the 



160 BETSY JANE. 

canoe was carried down to the water, and my 
paddle plashed in the new ripples, eager for the 
start as a horse paws for a gallop. 

Sun and a fresh breeze, but not too much of 
either. A long and regular rolling swell seemed 
to tell that the sea would only calm down in a 
dignified way after its rage for a week. Ocean was 
at last in good-humour ; but, nevertheless, he was 
not to be trifled with, so we skimmed over his face 
daintily, lest the sleeping sea might be awaked. 
Soon the old grey towers of the Kronberg, on the 
Danish side, showed clearer and looked almost 
lively under the morning rays, while the spray 
spurted up somewhat lazily against its sea-worn 
walls, now hoary with the splashes of many 
centuries. 

Ships in a long procession moved towards the 
Baltic, with the sun on their sails, but there was 
no flapping of canvas, nor sense of hurry or pres- 
sure ; neither weary dead calm nor sudden blasts, 
but a gentle, graceful bowing of majestic forms, 
and the canoe itself seemed to relish the fine, long 
swell. Who that has loved his boat well but does 
not impersonate her ? Keason as I will, there are 
moments when I feel that the Kob Eoy is verte- 
brate. 

The sight was too fine to hurry past it, and as 
we had run across so quickly we dawdled now by 
the shore ; then I paddled out to a bark with 
British colours flying, and her pretty white sails 
scarcely full. " It may be some romantic ship," 
thought we, " and bound on some heroic cruise ; " 
but when we came alongside, it was only the 
" Betsy Jane, from Hartlepool," with a cargo of 



A CHALLENGE. 161 

^coals for Cronstadt. The pure sea water was so 
clear, and the sun shone down into it so far, that I 
could see well under her great firm keel, and there 
was a sheen of yellow light from the copper of her 
big round waist far below and wondrously sup- 
ported on this transparent water, making me feel, 
too, what great depths were beneath me, and how 
very thin a plank was between. 

One great advantage of touring in these tem- 
perate parts is this: that the sun is looked on 
as a friend. When he gleams over the sea in the 
morning, it is pleasant to feel he will be hotter 
every hour till noon ; whereas, in the sunny south, 
you learn only to fear the great blazing orb, and 
every hour of his shining brings it nearer to the 
time when you have to leave him to rule alone, 
and the fierce glory drives you into the shade until 
evening. Idlers we had left on the pier in Sweden, 
and we passed idlers more on the Danish pier, who 
had, of course, seen the little boat gliding over the 
waves, and welcomed her arrival eagerly. Here 
they mistook me (as in other places) for the 
adventurous Yankee, "Bed, White, and Blue," 
though my voyage is not of that fashion — artificial 
hazard without pleasure felt or knowledge gained, 
in a purposely difficult and tedious way — two lives 
sure to go if either man gets ill. 

If any one can devise a better method for going 
over land and water than the canoe, we will gladly 
adopt it. 

The Kob Eoy was next carried into the town, 
and the grave Officers of the Custom-house were 
laughed out of countenance as usual when the 
boat was paraded for formal examination at their 

M 



162 COPENHAGEN. 

street door, so we took her right up to the pretty 
villa of the British Consul, whose brother had 
visited this place with me in 1855. It was very 
pleasant to be welcomed in a new country, and 
at a well-covered breakfast-table, and then to 
luxuriate amongst the currant-bushes, and play 
croquet with the young ladies, while the boat 
reposed in the coach-house, where visitors soon 
came to see her admirable shape. In an album 
here my kind friends had preserved a little sketch 
I had made there, eleven years before, of a pretty 
boy standing, hoop in hand, beside the tomb of 
Hamlet. The boy in petticoats is now a bold 
Guardsman ; and Hamlet, we know, was not from 
Seland, but from Jutland, his name being Amlet 
(madman). Then the Cockneys say it right, after 
all. 

The croquet had gone on until Kob Eoy 
became a "rover," so she was next embarked 
on a steamer, and when well on its course, I 
lowered the canoe into the sea, and spent the 
rest of the day coasting along the pretty shores of 
Seland, until countless villas, pleasure-boats, and 
bathing-boxes announced that Copenhagen was 
being neared. Stately ships sailed alongside me 
in gallant array, while carriages and pedestrians 
were on the road quite near. It was like a lively, 
bustling street, with the ships for carriages, and 
the land traffic on the pavement. 

The Kob Eoy, carried through Copenhagen, of 
course attracted a great crowd, and the head 
waiter (being a man of sense) conducted her 
upstairs, where the great ball-room was allotted 
for a boat-house, and there the canoe rested gently 



TIE TO THE DANE. 163 

on an ottoman. We had seen the great sights of 
this very interesting city long ago — and is it not 
often a great relief to be able to say this ? — but our 
interest in Denmark had been much increased 
by perusing a book called " Denmark and her 
Missions/' by Mrs. Ellis, which recites the remark- 
able activity in early times of the Christian people 
of this fine old Protestant country. Denmark has 
done much for English Christians when our own 
blind policy prevented Englishmen from giving to 
India the Book which has been blessed to us — the 
Holy Bible.* These times have, happily, changed, 
but our debt of gratitude still stands to Denmark ; 
and now we are united to the sturdy Danes by 
the tender tie of a Boyal alliance. 

Pious and gentle in her wifely care at a bed- 
side watched in deep gloom by all who felt for 
England's trial. Smiling in bright thankfulness 
when all of us gave thanks under that great 
dome one day. 

God bless the Danish Princess — our English 
Queen to be ! 

* Some information on this subject from the work here 
cited will be found in the Appendix. 



M 2 



( 161 ) 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Big Buttons — Canoe for the Casual — Beds ! — Bob Boy- 
Senior — An Old Friend — Inquisitive — Sproge Island 
— The Great Belt — Lost a Head — Down, Down — 
The False Stroke — Lake Dull — Green Sailors — 
Polite in Peril. 

Thbee Russian frigates in the harbour attracted 
much attention. On board one was the youthful 
Grand Duke, who is a sailor prince ; and one of 
his preceptors — an Englishman — was at the hotel. 
The big guns of the Husky ironclad were booming 
out a salute for the Emperor's name-day, and the 
carriages of the King of Denmark, with servants 
in red liveries, were bearing guests to the royal 
dinner for the occasion. 

But I went to the prosaic business of buying an 
oilskin coat — one of those bright yellow garments 
you see on regular sailors in a regular storm. That 
which I chose had double thickness in the back 
and epaulets on the shoulders, and most appalling 
black buttons down the front — all for the trifling 
sum of 6s. 6d. It will be understood, we hope, 
why this event is narrated in our log. So im- 
portant an addition to the stores of the Eob Eoy 
cannot be passed over in silence, as if one were on 
a mere common tour, where the traveller does not 
carry his own goods over sea and land, and where 



CANOE FOR THE CASUAL. 



165 



another garment added to bis luggage is a very 
small affair.* 

In approaching the harbour of Copenhagen we 
had descried a man in a canoe (as it appeared) 
with a long double paddle ; and, of course, a rival 
in the art could not be passed without examination. 
Next day I went and had an hour's exercise in this 




strange craft, which was for hire at the bathing- 
place, with several others. It is a double canoe, 
with a common chair fixed upon the two hulls, so 
that you seem to sit upon the water, and then, 
with a very long paddle — the handle hopelessly 

* Our Danish dreadnought had some hard times after this, 
as narrated in " The voyage alone in the Yawl, Rod Roy." 
(Low and Marston, 2nd edition.) 



166 BEDS ! 

heavy, and the blades uselessly small — you can 
move about in a mysterious but unsatisfactory 
way upon the quiet waters of the sea. We have 
noticed these articles frequently on the Continent, 
and it is rather strange that we have so very few 
of them in England. 

The landlord of the comfortable hotel, quite a 
gentleman in manners, and warmly attached to 
England, invited me to supper in his apartments, 
underneath the great building, where the fame of 
the boat brought visitors to see it and the sketches, 
and it was arranged to take a photograph of the 
Eob Koy next morning. Meantime, while we 
lounge and gossip, a young lady comes in for her 
nocturnal practice on the piano, and has half-an- 
hour " at scales " with commendable exactness. 
The cricket club began their season to-day, but 
they are young hands as yet. 

Having walked and talked, paddled and sailed, 
eaten and read and written and sketched as usual, 
I must now go up to prison — I mean to bed. 
Yes, I will have one fling at those detestable 
Continental beds, and be done with it. Horrid 
cribs, boxes made for people five feet high ; you 
cannot have a stretch in one of them. Each night 
I begin with a vigorous push, and the end boards 
of the structure creak again, trying to make sixty- 
six inches into six feet six. Laugh not at this 
grievance as a small one; only he knows its 
plague who has paddled all day, and wants at 
length to lie. Ye Swedes and Danes who read this 
page, have mercy, I beseech you, on tall English- 
men! 

The Eussian sailors perambulated the town, 



ROB ROY SENIOR. 167 

clad in blue jackets and white cloth caps. One of 
them made a great noise as he was. captured by 
the guard, and taken away drunk to his ship, 
w r here no doubt, poor fellow, he would have a hard 
penalty in that rigorous service.* 

The canoe was now put into a cart, and trotted 
off to the railway which crosses Seland, and here 
a young German came up, and said he had been 
with Mr. Lawton in his yacht Sappho on the coast 
of Norway, and had seen the old original Kob Roy, 
lent by me to that gentleman for his trip to the 
North Cape, also that paddle-wheels had been 
tried upon the other canoe, the Rollo, but they 
were found to fail (for the five hundred and fifty - 
fifth time). It was truly agreeable to hear of the 
good health of the brave old boat, which is now 
put into a paddock for the rest of her life, though 
I must say the new Rob Roy is an immense im- 
provement on her predecessor. 

At the refreshment-station a man is making a 
horrid row, and disturbs all the passengers. The 
face and voice of the rioter are familiar. Yes, it 
is my English room- companion of the Norway inn, 
who, it may be remembered, walks and talks in 
his sleep, and persists that he is not mad. But let 
ug flee back to our carriage, where also there is a 
Oerman from Valparaiso, who says that the Chin- 
cha Islands, from whence comes guano for the 
farming world, may last, as a supply, for ten or 

* At the Piraeus, in Greece, we once went out to the Russian 
fleet in a little sailing-boat, and then observed in the men- 
of-war's boats the coxswain lash the men who were rowing 
with a very long coach-whip. Probably he did not know 
that an Englishman was looking on. 



168 INQUISITIVE. 

twelve years. The first cargo of this valuable 
manure was imported by a Frenchman. People 
then thought he was demented, and they refused 
to charter a ship for such a purpose. But millions 
are now made out of the trade, and most of this 
by an English house. At the other side of the 
island of Seland, the Eob Koy was marched into 
the " Hotel Store Belt," to the utter amazement of 
the waiters ; and yet they soon gave her a room to 
herself, for I have now got bolder in my requests 
on this point, finding it a very convenient arrange- 
ment to take my oaken companion upstairs at 
once. 

The plan looked successful here also, especially 
as the porter gave me the key of the room. But 
next day I found they had retained another key, 
and scores of people had been admitted to the 
nautical exhibition, and had deranged the fittings 
of the boat, vainly striving to put them back as. 
they were before, and to escape the detection sure 
to follow when the sailor's knot I always tie round 
the paddle has been at all disturbed. 

It is to be remarked that the Swedes, and even- 
more the Danes, are far worse in their obstinate 
inquisitiveness about this boat than the Germans 
were last summer.* It had now become a positive 
difficulty to keep the canoe still one single hour, 
its proper rest was seriously disturbed, except in 
my own bedroom. But the whole transaction, let 
us acknowledge, is out of the usual line ; and when 
I am dusting the canoe on two chairs, with its 
varnished cedar deck resting on my knee, in a 

* The Danes are beaten hollow by the Dutch, as I found: 
in my cruise on the Zuider Zee in 1871. 



sprog£ island. 169 

room upstairs, it is difficult to believe that, in five 
minutes, this slender airy little thing will be 
lowered into the waves, and will buoyantly dash 
over the sea, carrying me where many of the 
roughest sea boats would not be safe for a moment. 
The wind had again risen so high, and it was so 
completely unfavourable, that we could only look 
at the island of Sproge, six miles away there, 
among the white-tipped billows, dead to windward, 
and thus quite beyond my power to visit then ; 
and it was the only occasion on which I had to 
forego an intended excursion. This little rock lies 
half-way across the Great Belt ; and when the sea 
is frozen here in winter, people are sometimes 
detained a week before the ice is strong enough to 
bear, or has cleared away to let the water be used 
for sailing. The passengers, however, cross in ice 
boats, made with three keels and flat bottoms, so as 
to slide on the ice, or float in the water. 

The waves in the harbour of Korsor were high, 
as the west wind blew against the stream rushing 
from an inland salt lake ; and a dismasted vessel 
in the offing, and the treble-reefed sails of the few 
inside, showed there was a stiff gale blowing. 
However, 1 launched the Kob Roy fearlessly, and 
had a charming time of it (quite wet, of course, 
with spray), bounding over the rollers and dashing 
through the white water, while the whole popula- 
tion assembled on the pier, and all the hotel, rail- 
way, and steamboat people, longing to see how the 
bar would be crossed by the little "kyak," as 
they call it — the Greenland name, and which, 
oddly enough, is very like that of " caique," the 
name of the Turkish boats on the Bosphorus. 



170 LOST A HEAD. 

The strong current ran one way, and the strong 
breeze blew the other ; so that the canoe, being 
about equally affected by these forces, could in 
fact easily be propelled in any direction, and its 
manoeuvres probably looked wonderful to those 
who were not aware of this fortunate compensation 
of forces. 

But their plaudits gradually urged me to more 
daring trials; and at last, having got out further 
than usual, and among the waves sharpened by 
the wind and tide opposing, I lost my head once 
and for a moment — and for the only time in this 
or any other cruise. So the manner of it shall 
be explained. 

When waves are long enough to allow the boat 
to descend the face of one, and then to rise on the 
back of another without being caught in the trough 
between them, then it is really of no consequence 
how high they may be, for the canoe will ride over 
each wave like a cork. Now it will be found that, 
unless you are going fast through the water, about 
twenty feet between the wave crests will just allow 
of this regular mounting and descent ; but a less 
distance requires special management. 

On this occasion I had got into a position where 
it was not expedient to turn the boat round, and 
so to come back bow foremost, and I was therefore 
returning stern foremost — which practice enables 
one to do quite safely — casting a glance over the 
shoulder at each stroke, to see the nature of the 
next wave which has to be encountered. 

The Rob Eoy was progressing gallantly thus, 
going with the wind and against the tide. In 
such cases your motion is always faster just at the 



DOWN, DOWN. 171 

summit of a wave, where the wind is strongest ; 
and as the great splash comes at that moment, 
you cannot see more than one wave at a time, so 
as to profit by the glance, especially if you are 
paddling backwards. 

On arriving at the top of one of these billows, I 
suddenly saw that the next one was quite thin 
(the light shone through it), and the top was 
curled over. The proper method of "taking" 
this (according to the excellent instructions of the 
Life-boat Institution pamphlet) is to rush at it, so 
that you may have " way " on, and the wave may 
not drive the lower end of your boat under water, 
and then turn her over on this as a pivot. 

But, forgetting at the moment that I was at 
this time going stern foremost — which, of course, 
reversed every operation — I gave a powerful stroke 
precisely in the wrong direction, that is to say, 
forwards, and thus both my own arm and the 
high-topped crest drove the bows of the canoe deep 
into the base of the wave before me. 

As the cedar deck disappeared foot by foot (but 
all in an instant of time), it flashed upon me that 
I had made a fatal error ; the likely consequences 
were too well known. My nerves shrank up as 
when a schoolboy expects the cane on his hand ; 
and the man at the helm fairly lost his presence 
of mind. Down came the great curved crest full 
on my back, and deluged me with water, which 
easily rushed in round my waist, for the apron is 
not so secured in the rear as to stand an attack 
from that quarter. 

A good ducking was endured, and a good lesson 
was learned, "Never go stern foremost against 



172 



THE FALSE STROKE, 



short seas ;" and for the benefit of brother paddlers 
this incident is related at length, while other 
readers will please to excuse the long story, and 




;i THE FALSE STEOKE. ' 



to congratulate the Eob Boy on escaping great 
danger by the buoyancy derived from its high- 
arched deck. 

As it was impossible to reach Sproge, we had to 



GREEN SAILORS. 173 

turn from the Great Belt into a large expanse of 
salt water behind Korsor, like an inland lake, 
which we determined to explore. It was, I do 
believe, the very dullest lake ever seen. Flat, 
straight, and bleak sides, with few trees, and 
scarcely an island. But then the water was clear, 
and it was very amusing to watch the crabs and 
fish below. One crab when disturbed actually 
ran off with its little baby under its arm. Direct- 
ing my course to the only house, I stole up to it 
through reeds and shallows unperceived, and 
began to sing a doleful air under its windows, 
quite close to the door, for there is no tide here, 
and so they build within a foot of the water. 

Amazement filled the habitation at once The 
first boy who came out screamed loudly to the 
inmates; and, like a wise boy, he kept steadily 
looking at me all the time he roared. In general 
they run away to call their friends, and then on 
their return the sight has vanished, though I often 
delay in such cases, that the poor fellows may not 
be disappointed. 

In the distance we noticed a sailing-boat labour- 
ing very much, arid evidently directed by very 
indifferent seamen ; so we bore away to her just as 
she managed to take in sail, and not a moment too 
soon, before one of those terrible squalls which 
sweep over sea and land here with great and 
sudden violence. One man in the boat had a 
black frock-coat on and a black " chimney-pot " 
hat ; and this convinced me that the craft needed 
help, for no one accustomed to boating would 
keep on such head-gear in a small sailing-boat 
when it blows hard. We found the two adventurers 



174 POLITE IN PERIL. 

had come out purposely to see the " kyak," and 
they had been blown away to leeward until they 
were hopelessly out of reach of home. The ballast 
in the boat was partly of loose bricks — about the 
most dangerous things one could carry, as they 
roll and tumble over in a lurch, and would always 
fall to the wrong side, just where they are not 
wanted. 

The other navigator was a young lad, who was 
labouring with all his might at an oar, but still 
was so polite that he did not forget to take off his 
hat to salute me even under these desperate con- 
ditions. However, w 7 ith a little assistance and 
advice, we soon got things to-rights ; and one must 
hope that the two inquisitive sightseers will not 
go to sea again in this plight — at least until 
another kyak visits the neighbourhood. 

And then, after four hours of healthful exercise, 
returning to the " Great Belt Hotel," how much 
you relish a cup of coffee ! that good coffee which 
you get on the Continent almost everywhere, 
because they roast it fresh every day, and grind it 
hot, and put plenty in the pot ; and which you 
seldom can get in England, because we insist on 
buying it roasted and ground, and, therefore, as it 
were, dead, and then put little in. 



( 175 ) 



CHAPTER XVII. 



Girls don't matter — Stolen — Attack on the Forts — Son- 
derburg — Libels — Forts of Diippel — Soldiers' Graves. 

]S~ext morning we embarked in the Diana, a fine 
steamer, which makes a cruise among the islands ; 
and here the Scotch engineer, with his " steeple " 
" engines from Mr. MacNab's in G-lasgy," was glad 
to welcome a compatriot, and to receive a Si British 
Workman" for his daughters. The scenery on 
this voyage was very pretty, but never grand. 
Fine rocks, luxuriant foliage, sparkling sea, and 
comfortable houses — all in endless variety of 
combination and outline, and with a brisk gale 
to heighten the interest, while the fine vessel 
pitched and rolled delightfully. Crossing from 
Seland to Funen or Fyen (pronounced almost 
Fuin), our course was then round the southern 
end, and up a long strait to Svendborg. This 
picturesque town captivated my attention ; but 
when we thought of "how can we get away again 
if we stop here to-day " — perhaps it may be for 
three days — the idea of stopping at all had to be 
given up. Long warps had to be led round the 
bulwarks of the steamer to turn her round in 
the narrow inlet ; and this operation was not an 
easy one, even with four stout hawsers, for the 
west wind now had a strong hold upon us. A 
youth who coul d speak French told me I was the 



176 girls don't matter. 

only passenger for Sonderburg except two peasant 
girls, and it was doubtful whether — the sea being 
so high — we could venture to touch there, and it 
would make three hours' delay. I was sorry for 
this, because we had desired to go there to see 
the battle-field of the Slesvig campaign ; but when 
my friend said, " As for the girls it is no matter," 
we saw he meant only his own convenience, and 
to me it seemed right to think of the poor women, 
too, for whom it might be very important not to 
be carried away. Then they said the Prussians 
would not let me land without a passport, &c, 
&c. ; but all this made one more anxious for the 
adventure. 

There w T ere several Slesvigers and Holsteiners 
on board the Diana, and they had a very lively 
conversation in their peculiar lingo, as the island 
of Als came nearer in sight. They looked on the 
fine bold cliffs, the waving trees and the deep 
green grass and thriving homesteads of their own 
land, occupied by the Prussians, as you would look 
at your gold watch in a thief's hand — a watch th^t 
had been yours for years and years. For there 
was the Diippel windmill, and the forts all round, 
sloping wedges, like disjointed pieces of railway 
embankments, and covered with grass. Sentries 
w r ere thickly posted on every height, and lounged 
near their sentry-boxes, striped black and white 
— the Prussian colours — and with their needle- 
guns nearly horizontal on their shoulders. In 
1864 this bay was the battle scene, and the big 
guns sent their balls across it, three miles, over 
the water. Only the day before we arrived the 
Prussian fleet had visited the place, and now it 



ATTACK ON THE FORTS. 177 

was empty, except that some herring-boats scudded 
homewards, with their square high sterns pierced 
with little windows, exactly as one sees in pictures 
of a hundred years ago. 

Turning now into a narrow channel, we come 
to Sonderburg; but our steamer rolls deeply in 
the waves, and must not venture to the pier, so 
there is nothing for it but to drop the canoe into 
the sea, and go ashore in her — the offer of going 
in a boat with the canoe towed behind being 
respectfully declined by the Eob Eoy with as 
much courtesy as her sense of the indignity would 
allow. 

A canoe, and such a mode of landing, were, no 
doubt, quite novel at this place, and the beach 
was soon thronged with visitors, all holding their 
head-gear on in the high wind, and with their 
coat-tails flapping in the breeze. 

However, I did not mean to come ashore for 
several hours yet, but only to land my black bag, 
and then to take a cruise for the rest of the after- 
noon, and to debark quietly when the excitement 
had subsided. But the watchful guards were far 
too sharp for that. 

All the soldiers off duty, and with their white 
canvas jackets and neat round peakless caps, at 
once rushed down to the canoe ; and the authori- 
ties solemnly proclaimed that the Captain of the 
strange craft " must go to the Prussian Custom- 
house," to pay for the Eob Eoy. " Nonsense," 
I said, " I am going to paddle up the bay." " Well, 
but you must bring the boat to the Douane." 
"Very good; after my cruise" "No, at once; 
now." " Please tell them I travelled in Prussia 

N 



178 SONDERBURG. 

and never paid anything." At last the Inspector, 
seeing I was English, and that my Monitor was 
not ironclad, allowed me to go in peace, and the 
population rejoiced, for they followed along the 
shore while I led the way in the water. So I had 
my fine day's exercise and a thorough exploration 
of the neighbourhood after all. 

Sonderburg is a very pretty place, far too lovely 
for a bloody battle-field, and battered houses and 
trees scarred with shot, and mangled corpses on 
the ground. The Prussian garrison of 1600 men 
fill that large square building by the water's edge, 
and sentries are all round us, while every hill has 
its forts, and newly-patched houses show where 
the cannon told on the hapless town. The town 
is a thriving one, and the people seem very merry 
under their invasion ; indeed, there is more of 
w 7 histling and singing here than we have remarked 
for the last two months. 

The little "Als Sund" inn was close to the 
water, and, therefore, good for me, though it had 
naturally the usual features. First, the box bed, 
with sloping pillow and footboard, far too short ; 
but we have settled an account elsewhere with 
this Scandinavian couch, so let it be. Then there 
is the saucer of a basin, and teacup of a water- 
jug, and handkerchief of a towel, and the blind 
that won't pull down or stop up, and the pepper- 
box that won't pepper, and the door that won't 
lock, and the bell that won't ring, and, finally, the 
maid-servant that won't go away out of your room 
— nay, bolts in to see you at any hour — all hours, 
night or day — and without the slightest attempt 
at a knock beforehand. Pooh ! these are the 



LIBELS. 179 

trifles of travel ; and it is really too bad even to 
allude to tliern when so many days of glorious 
pleasure have been enjoyed with zest by the crew 
of the Eob Boy. 

But we mention these things now because they 
are, in fact, more troublesome than any of the 
peculiar inconveniences appertaining to this special 
mode of touring in a canoe. For instance, some- 
body has lightly said that, " it may be doubtful 
how far one could enjoy a voyage with one's legs 
cramped in a boat, and water trickling down both 
sleeves." To this I reply that it is very little 
doubtful that a walking tour would not be enjoyed 
if you had your feet cramped in your shoes — only, 
knowing this, you get shoes to fit your feet, and 
so they are not cramped. Why, the canoe must 
be made to fit the paddler, too, and then there is 
no cramping at all. 

As for the water in your sleeve, it is far better 
there than down the nape of your neck or about 
your knees, which we must all put up with in a 
pedestrian tour. The man w r ho shrinks from water, 
indeed, had better not go to sea; and the man 
who sneezes at dust should keep off the dry road. 
For myself, I like water even at my elbows ; and 
a dash of the salt spray from a glittering wave is 
not the worst thing you can have in your face. 
Pardon this logic of enthusiasm — for it is a skipper 
defending his craft- 
It was very interesting indeed to walk round 
the fortifications, which extend for miles about the 
town, and are all kept in apple-pie order, with 
smooth green grassy slopes, and sentry-boxes, near 
which you see the dapper Prussian sentry pacing 

N 2 



180 



SOLDIERS GRAVES. 



about on a ploughed field, and near him the milk- 
maid stoops beside the unreluctant cow, and the 
miller goes aloft to furl the sails for the night. 

In my lonely walk through the pleasant fields 
there were often seen those little wooden crosses 
set up by some hedge to show where a soldier fell y 
and on the top of this hill is the cemetery of the 




battle, where Danes and Prussians are buried side 
by side. 

Here is a Prussian grave — a stone obelisk with 
a railing round it, and immortelles hanging in the 
wind, while the inscription reads : — " Hier ruhen 
28 tapfere Preussen," and near it one of the 
Danish tombs — a huge stone block with only one 
side polished, and not so likely to be carried off 



soldiers' graves. 181 

for a doorstep, or to face the corner of a bastion, 
as a square edged stone would be. There are no 
wreaths about it, but in golden letters, which 
glitter in the sun, it tells us, "Hier ruhen 25 
tapfere Danen. Sie fielen am 18 April, 1864." 
In many other places were those signs of battle- 
days which last so long in an unmistakable green 
colour of the grass ; and I recollect having noticed 
this feature very distinctly on the field of Culloden 
in 1845, just one hundred years after the bloody 
battle there. 

The soldiers all look intelligent, healthy, strong, 
and active young fellows, much like the materiel 
of our best volunteer corps ; but their artillery and 
mortar practice, at least when we were present, 
appeared to be slovenly and bad. They have cer- 
tainly improved that a good deal before they bat- 
tered Strasburg and Metz. 



( 182 ) 



CHAPTER XYIII. 



England abroad — Invaders — ■ Pickled Tongue — Explosion 
— Wrecked — Drift on the Reefs — dying for Joy — 
Saved. 

At night some people, carousing late In the inn, 
were very noisy in the room next to mine, and 
only separated by a thin partition; so, when at 
eleven o'clock they had sung a most lugubrious 
song over and over, and worse each time, I gave 
two loud thumps on the door. Instant silence, 
and then a jabber of consultation as to who and 
what was this. Finally they concluded it was 
" the Englishman with the kyak ; " and then,, 
though the most inveterate of them still hummed 
a little, as a sort of assertion 'of their rights, the 
heart of the harmony was dried up, and it soon 
withered away into quiet. Certainly it must be 
highly uncomplimentary to hear a great knock on 
the door in the finest part of your best song. 
Remonstrance by words could be answered, but 
the decision of a loud smack on resounding wood, 
though not an articulate message, is without 
appeal, and admits of no argument. Sorry as I 
am to limit any one's pleasure for my own com- 
fort, it must be confessed that the Eob Roy would 
go very slow and very short journeys if her sailing- 
master had not plenty of rest as well as plenty of 
work. 



ENGLAND ABROAD. 183 

At a book-shop we had found Harrison Ains- 
Avorth's " James II." and we read it with very 
great pleasure. The strange sensation of reading 
a thorough English book in a foreign land cannot 
be described, but it is very powerful. Just as one 
gets fully engaged about Whitehall Palace and 
the Earl of Sunderland and the trial of the six 
bishops and Westminster Hall, and when the mind 
and body are in the frame as if one were in the 
very heart of London — out brays the trumpet of 
the Prussian garrison, and the roll of the drum 
rattles the " tattoo " in quite a foreign accent, 
and all one's ideas are shaken and disjointed for a 
moment, till the mind separates the two facts that 
one is reading of old England, but in the island 
of Als. Something of the same kind I had felt 
in the desert of the Atlas, where one day I kept 
on reading " Adam Bede " in a cave so long that 
the Kabyle guide fell fast asleep, and the sun had 
gone down too far for us to proceed to our halt- 
place for the night. 

On Sunday the soldiers went early to church, 
and they came back, not in military order, but in 
groups as they pleased ; but there was a quietness 
and manly courtesy about these men which was 
very attractive, and I could not help admiring 
their whole appearance, though, of course, in this 
country they are looked on as invaders, and 
England is not praised for allowing the deeds that 
were done. I do not know the very right in this 
business ; but on the whole, as a general conclu- 
sion, we may be glad that a Protestant Constitu- 
tional power is consolidated in Europe. 

As a tourist, and coming from a land where 



184 PICKLED TONGUE. 

foreign occupation of our homes is even unima- 
ginable — and, with our volunteers to avert it, 
we may say quite impossible — there is extreme 
interest felt in watching the behaviour of the in- 
vaders and that of the subjugated people. How 
must it be to see every day the graves of the men 
who fought on our side, and were beaten — so fresh, 
too — and of brothers and fathers? Surely the 
mourner's tear must sometimes have been dried 
on his cheek, by the burning heat of revenge, and 
the sob be stiffened with clenched teeth. 

Next morning I was quite unresolved what to 
do, and in such cases it is best to go out and 
lounge about a little, to see if anything will " turn 
up." In this state of things an English-speaking 
captain came, and after he had seen my boat (it is 
good policy always to interest them first) I asked 
him to help me to get a cart to take the canoe 
four miles overland to another arm of the sea. He 
said he had a cart in his ship ; so we went to see 
the vehicle, but it turned out to be a " chart!' We 
ought to have used the word " waggon." 

If a foreigner talks wholly in one tongue, either 
foreign or English, it is much easier to understand 
him than if he mixes the words of both ; for in 
this latter case you are perplexed as to which 
language you must refer a particular word to. 
Thus, on another occasion, I was completely 
puzzled when a waiter inquired if I would have 
"fleisch eller am?" and I kept repeating the 
word, "Am! am!" searching the small lexicon in 
my mind as to what that could be. After all, it 
was only our own Briuish " ham " he meant. 

But here comes a little steamer to the quay. 



EXPLOSION. 185 

" Where is your steamer going?" "Flensborg." 
4, Will you take me and my boat?" "Yes, we 
will wait five minutes for you." In half that time 
my plan was changed and my bill paid, and the 
boat being hoisted on the steamer, we put to sea. 
This little Apenrade was the smallest sea-steamer 
I ever saw, with an engine of 12-horse power, and 
after we had gone well out into the swell she 
pitched most vigorously. There happened to be 
two other ship captains on board, one of them an 
old hand from California, and both could speak 
English. Then there were also the captain of the 
Rob Roy, and a lady and two children, and a few 
nondescript "bodies." While I was congratu- 
lating myself on the lucky chance of getting a lift 
to my next destination, suddenly a loud explosion 
took place, bang ! bang ! and then a crash and the 
smashing of glass and hissing of steam and shrieks 
from the lady, and then utter silence — the engine 
had stopped. At the alarm, the engineer rushed 
to the engine ; but the stoker, a coward, ran to 
the bows, to drop into the water. We found the 
cylinder was blown to pieces, and, of course, 
the steam-engine w r as now useless. Here, then, 
were we, miles from land, and in a stormy sea, 
with heavy weather to windward, without masts, 
sails, oars, or even a boat — indeed, they had not 
even bread on board. The captain took it all in 
a careless way, as befitted one who could put to 
sea thus unprovided ; and he laughed in a vacant 
manner, rather undecided what to do. However, 
we soon made him stir his wits. We hoisted a 
flagstaff for a mast, and made a great lug-sail out 
of the black tarpaulin from the luggage, with a 



186 WRECKED. 

boat-hook for a yard. This was done to bring the 
steamer round before the wind, for she was now 
lying like a log in the trough of every swell, and 
we wished to get her into the track of other 
vessels, whence help might come before the Apen- 
rade drifted to the rocks on our lee. The oldest 
captain was told off to hold the halyard of our 
jet-black sail, and he had to lean forward with 
every swell, so as to ease the crazy mast, in a very 
comical manner. Soon the weak little stick broke, 
but not entirely, and I helped, by using another 
pole as an oar, and rowing with all my might to 
get the little steamer round. Then I advised 
that we should hoist a signal of distress, and all 
stand up on the bows, and open our coats to act 
as a sail. This was done, and at length we slowly 
veered round, and began to run for shore before 
the wind. 

The chief danger was, first, that if night came 
on before we were seen, there was no food, except 
three bottles of ale, for about fifteen persons, and 
no boat to get it by but the canoe ; and, second, 
that we were drifting on to a reef of rocks, where 
the iron sides of our wretched little steamer would 
be stove in by one blow, and we should then sink 
at once, for she had no compartments. The w T ater 
was too deep to anchor in, and so we did for the 
best in making for more shallow water in shore. 

The lady it was sad to see — poor thing, how 
she did cry ! Only one other person besides the 
stoker behaved badly, a sailor passenger, wha 
kept grumbling at the accident, and croaking 
about his own personal inconveniences, when life 
was in danger, and a woman and children under 



DRIFT ON THE EEEFS. 



187 



our charge ! He kept mumbling in this style as 
he walked from one end of the deck to the other 
— about three paces did it. On behalf of all of 
us I gave him such a hearty set-down in good 




sound English that he was ashamed of himself. 
Of course we scanned the horizon on all sides to 
see some friendly sail, and at length a steamer 
was seen, not that we could see her hull, but 
only a dense cloud of smoke, which also entirely 



188 CRYING FOR JOY. 

obscured us from being noticed on board of her, 
as she was dead to windward. But when they 
observed our flag with the end knotted (the 
distress signal), we gladly saw them bearing 
down straight to our help. Now the lady began 
to cry for joy, and her two children, who had been 
very grave, but behaved well, cried in sympathy. 
There is nothing that either so unmans a man or 
so inspirits him to manly deeds as to see a woman 
crying. If he cannot possibly help her, then it is 
tenfold more agonizing to see her hopeless tears. 
But if he can by any daring pluck or muscle 
render any help, then, indeed, those very tears 
w T ill nerve him to the utmost unless he be of 
soulless clay. We were at this time within 200 
yards of the shoal, the warning buoy upon it being 
close under our lee ; and the doubt was whether 
the steamer could reach us before we got on the 
rocks. The oldest sea captain and myself held 
one opinion as to how we should use the sail, 
and the two other captains held the reverse, but 
our plan was adopted. 

I should mention that before we saw the 
steamer they wished me to launch the canoe, first 
to get ashore myself, and then to get help for the 
rest. But I said that would be useless, for the 
first danger was in the reef of rocks, and if we 
were to strike on them the canoe might be of use 
to us all, and especially to the lady and children ; 
whereas if I now left the ship in her it would be 
some hours before I could get any help, and they 
agreed to this view. There was a further reason 
for my refusal to leave the steamer, for, suppose 
she had gone down while I was paddling away for 



SAVED. 189 

assistance, it would have been quite impossible to 
convince the people on shore that I had not 
selfishly saved myself at the supreme moment 
of other people's death by sinking. The steamer 
Vidar seemed, however, to come to us with aston- 
ishing slowness, though she was under sail ; and it 
turned out that she also was partially disabled. 
Our captain then took down our distress signal; 
but as this seemed to be a device for saving the 
paltry sum due to any other vessel that might 
put off to our relief, I ventured (after consulting 
the old "salt") to hoist it again. Stinginess i& 
without excuse when applied to those who come 
to save life. Soon the Vidar was within hail, and 
her captain saw how near we were to the reef, 
and he, of course, did not wish to come nearer to 
it than he could help ; but his friendly hand hove 
a rope on board, and in a few moments more we 
were bounding over the waves, towed back to 
Sonderburg on the 14th of September. 



( 190 ) 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Old Kowlock — Foam — Isles of Denmark — Lollipops — 
Back Doors. 

The shore was thronged again with gazers, many 
of whom had seen us start in the morning ; and 
the Prussian soldiers laughed good-humouredly 
to find the Eob Eoy once more borne to land. 
As the weather now cleared up, and the evening- 
was before me, I determined not to lose it ; so, 
after a good dinner, the Eob Eoy started off along 
the channel which leads to Augustenburg, where 
we had some hours of pleasant sailing, and landed 
in several places. 

In a curious book lately published, ' Denmark 
in the Iron Age/ it is mentioned that in a creek 
leading up from this channel of Als Smid is the 
village of Nydam, where a very curious relic was 
found imbedded in the peat — a boat seventy-seven 
feet long and ten feet broad, with rowlocks for 
twenty-eight oars. These rowlocks were of the 
shape sketched at page 119, fig. 4; and it was 
very interesting to observe, in the collection of 
modern boats at the Exhibition in Stockholm, 
this form of rowlock precisely is still used in 
some of the yawls on the Scandinavian coasts. 
The ancient boat was very ancient indeed, having 
been built, rowed, stranded, and buried ages ago. 



OLD ROWLOCK. 191 

The brave old planks seem to have been sewn 
together with bark or ropes. Now it is set up 
again, and preserved in the Museum at Flens- 
borg ; but the feature that attracts me specially 
is the form of rowlock, for our canoe has no row- 
locks at all. 

At one of the quiet spots where we landed to 
look about, a sailor came who could speak English 
a little, and, looking at the boat's name on her 
bows, he said, " Ah, that Eobe Eoey, I had laese 
of him" (I have read of her). It was very 
strange to find the fame of the canoe extended 
to so obscure a harbour on a distant island in 
Denmark. 

The time was one of great enjoyment. In the 
shallows, where the wind was most gusty, and 
an upset would be of no moment, 1 put on sail, 
and the sharp canoe skimmed along, or leaned 
over with the pressure of the breeze — ever fitful, 
and roaring through the forest on the bank — but 
the boat would not turn over. Such trials as 
these are of great service when they can be 
thoroughly and safely made, as they give you 
confidence in your boat, which, in time of sudden 
and unwished-for danger, is of principal import- 
ance, for it prevents you from being flurried. In 
one part of the channel very long weeds covered 
the surface, and gently resisting, smoothly yielded 
to my polished planks as the strong breeze urged 
the Eob Eoy through them. But I confess to 
being rather suspicious of weeds, either to sail or 
to swim in. There is an uncertain and mysterious 
imagining as to what sort of unknown danger they 
contain or conceal ; in fact, they are " uncanny," 



192 FOAM. 

and it is very much the same with that white 
frothy foam which sometimes is six inches deep 
under a great waterfall. It hides the rocks, and 
yon feel it is an unknown element, not watery to 
float on, but watery enough to drown. 

In Sicily there is a vast plain of boiling mud, 
brown, hot, shining as it steams in the sun, and 
really this reeking, soft, uncomely slime looks 
far more terrible than Etna itself. The poet 
seized this idea well, who filled the infernal regions 
with waves of seething mud. 

Let us paddle away from weeds and froth and 
mud, and go back to the pretty town again, with 
the setting sun glittering on its windows, and 
warming the red-tiled roofs of its neat little 
houses, each with a garden and summer-bower 
close to the edge of the sea. 

Punctual and steady now comes a good strong 
English screw-steamer, the Vigilant, and by all 
means let us start again with confidence. She 
carried the canoe for nothing — thanks, good 
captain, may you soon be made an admiral ! 

For yachting, the isles of Denmark are better 
than the Mediterranean. " Sailing among the 
Greek islands " is far nicer to read of than to do, 
as I know by experience — such bad anchorage, 
bad water, shifty winds, and long stupid calms, 
Greek pirates, quarantine, &c. &c. But up here 
in the fresh air of the north you are among free 
people and a sailor population, with good harbours 
and islands lively and lovely — up with the sail 
cheerily. Through mazes of them we come to 
Flensborg, which is high up a beautiful creek in 
the mainland — if, indeed, we can call any part of 



LOLLIPOPS. 193 

Denmark mainland — for the Eider cuts it right 
across. 

Now, little Kob Roy, we have safely arrived, 
and you are to be mounted again on the top of 
a railway- carriage, which is the most secure of 
all modes of transit. A lady got into the same 
compartment with me,' and four little boys, 
Germans, with blue caps and red bands, and 
chubby cheeks, all the caps and cheeks being of 
the same pattern, only of different sizes. They 
tugged away at lollipops for some miles, and 
generally imparted some to me — not all into my 
mouth — until friends at a station handed in four 
penny trumpets, and thenceforth the carriage was 
like a small slice of Greenwich Fair. The mamma 
soon saw that I liked children, and the other 
gentleman in the carriage (who turned out to be 
the President of Schleswig) was equally sensible, 
so she became very animated, being divided 
between motherly pride at the spirit and mischief 
of her small army and the desire to keep them 
within tolerable bounds. " Speak you English? " 
said their little sister, " and French ? " and when 
I said " Yes," she answered, " Speak moi." So 
we came to Altona, a suburb of Hamburg ; and 
next day I launched on the great, dull, white- 
coloured Elbe, and paddled along the lines of tall 
ships, huge steamers, bright-coloured smacks, and 
boats of every rig and hue and nation in this fine, 
rich harbour. 

But I had a mind to penetrate, further and 
deeper ; and unless you have gone up the narrow 
water-lanes of Hamburg, you have not well seen 
this strange old town. Lofty houses are on each 

o 



194 BACK DOORS. 

side, built fantastically of rotten wood on rotten 
piles, resting in rotten mud, and without any 
approach along the edge of the water, and every 
probability of falling down. Thus for miles you 
penetrate into a third-rate Venice, with the crazy 
windows and dirty walls of the Jews' quarter 
marked by signs in Hebrew, and market-boats 
teeming with round cabbages blocking up the 
way. It would take many pages to describe the 
curious adventures of the Eob Eoy in this intra- 
mural journey ; but respect for the worthy Ham- 
burghers requires me to suppress any account of 
how their dwellings looked from this novel point 
of view. 

At every bridge there was a crowd to see the 
canoe, and then they ran round again to the next 
for another glimpse. Whenever I landed the 
people pressed so much that it was best at once 
to embark again. Yet this I will say, in all that 
long day's windings in the very worst parts of 
this great town, where to boyish minds it must 
have been most tempting to take a shot at the 
canoe, not one missile was cast at the boat. Last 
year only once did the mischievous natives of a 
town cast stones, and that was at night, and in 
Holland. But after coming home, I had not been 
a few hours upon the Thames before a lad in a 
barge threw a huge piece of coal at the Eob Eoy. 
Truly Punch has depicted our manners, when he 
makes a lad tell his father — " There's a strange 
man a-coming," and the father politely replies^ 
" 'Eave arf a brick at 'im." 



( 195 ) 



CHAPTER XX. 

Hamburg Warriors — Mechanics' Institution — Popple on the 
Elbe — Trying a Tow — Dutchman, ahoy! — Too fast 
by far — Rude — " Mout " — Sleeping on Apples — Cu- 
rious Voyage — Looking on — Lady Rowers — Grand- 
mamma — Race with a Lady — Tongue-tied. ; 

The new part of Hamburg, rebuilt by the English 
after a great fire, has a handsome square around 
a central lake, on which are boats without number, 
and of every size, from a twelve-oar down to neat 
punts for teaching boys to tow, and tiny steamers, 
and others with paddle-wheels turned by hand, 
for those special lunatics who attempt this tho- 
roughly bad means of locomotion.* 

A great crowd attracted my attention, and I 
found a street and bridges decorated, and staff- 
officers galloping about, until an infirm brass 
band ivalked forward at the head of the army of 
Hamburg, who are coming back to-day from the 
war ; and see how the inhabitants are now welcom- 
ing them ! Thousands line the streets, and throw 
garlands and roses to the trudging braves. Every 

* For many years Spain has claimed the merit of having 
made the first steamboat ; and it was said to be described in 
1543 in a letter written by the inventor, Blasco de Garay. 
Having had occasion to inspect this letter officially, in the 
archives at Simancas, I can state that it does not mention 
steam at all, but describes a boat with paddle-wheels turned 
by two hundred men. 

o 2 



196 HAMBURG WARRIORS. 

man has a bouquet round his shako, a bunch of 
green in his gun-muzzle, a whole bush of it in his 
knapsack, and a girdle of all bright nosegays round 
his waist ; and in the ranks, wildly mixed up with 
the soldiers, are their brothers and mothers, all 
arm in arm ; and you see that brown-faced young 
burgher, bronzed by the campaign, holding his 
needle-gun in one hand, while his other is round 
the neck of his fair — well, let us say cousin. 
Where has he come from, the honest-looking 
hero ? What ensanguined plain are those laurels 
gathered in, and where are the one-armed or the 
limping wounded, and the dented shields of the 
dead ? What, in fact, have these troops done to 
be feted and cheered and beflowered in this way? 
They had no fighting — but they were ready. Let 
us be glad they had not to fight ; and I dare say 
not one of them is sorry. 

The little canoe went up the creeks, and 
met boats full of mechanics going to dinner 
from their work. They sit in two rows on the 
sides of a great heavy barge, and each man has a 
short paddle, so that perhaps twenty are paddling, 
while another double row sits between them, 
inactive, the appearance of the whole being exactly 
like those great Indian canoes of the Pacific which 
are pictured in every book of missions or foreign 
travel. These men were immensely amused when 
we paddled up alongside, and claimed a sort of 
brotherhood closer than that of a boat with oars, 
in which you look one way and row the other. 

I had intended to go to Berlin to see the entry 
— a really triumphant one — of the soldiers who 
won the brilliant victories of July and August; 



MECHANICS 7 INSTITUTION. 



197 



but, after all, it would only be a pageant, and we 
had come for a paddle, therefore I turned again 
to the Elbe, and started down this wide river for 
a three days' cruise. One bank is prettily wooded, 
and has a succession of neat houses, pleasure-boats, 
and gardens — the Eichmond and Putney of the 




wealthy merchants here. After that both banks 
are more alike, though the north side is usually 
higher ; and the islands of mud, rushes, and weeds, 
with winding, unctuous channels and high green 
embankments, spread out the river over miles of 
surface, while the south wind now raises a heavy 
sea on its grey-coloured bosom. The canoe was 
soon careering along on the powerful tide over the 
joyous waves, and carried by the stream with a 



198 TKYING A TOW. 

whizzing noise through islets of stiff rushes, or 
cutting across mud-banks, where no other boats 
could go. The wind was high, and waves toppled 
always over my sides — not at all dangerous, but 
still somewhat troublesome, because each separate 
wave has to be dealt with, and though, after 
years of experience, there is an instinct created 
in the body which enables you to paddle on with- 
out looking at the water ; yet in broken water 
there is a disadvantage when a long' distance has 
to be accomplished, for it is evident that your boat 
travels further in going from one point to another, 
up and down and round so many little liquid hills, 
than on a smooth, level lake. 

It was charming to toss about while the great 
ships passed, and the fleet of fisher-boats bowing to 
the breeze. Each of them had a look at me com- 
ing closer, and a nod and a smile and a cheer 
came from many. My dinner (providently brought 
from the hotel) was taken under an island, where I 
found a poor woman gathering mussels ; and when 
I gave the empty wine-bottle into her withered 
hand she blessed me ever so long. Soon the 
wind freshened, and I laid hold of a boat towing 
after a brig, but my rope slipped, and the brig was 
going too fast to be caught again. Eesolved, how- 
ever, to have a " tow" (just because I had missed 
getting it — so perverse is free nature), we signalled 
to a Dutch cutter to luff up, and the Eob Eoy 
was speedily made fast to the square stern of the 
" Neptun." The worthy skipper had his two sons 
on board, and was carefully teaching the boys how 
to sail the tub they were to inherit; and he pointed 
out all the beacons and currents as we skurried 



TOO FAST BY FAK. 199 

;along. It was a very strange mode of travelling 
this, surely, to sit steering a canoe on the wide, 
grey, cold river, while it was pulled at a rapid 
pace in the two wake waves astern of this great 
smack, with the windows of its stern staring at 
me, and the captain's wife sitting aloft, with a 
very Dutch profile from my point of view. 

The wind freshened rapidly, and it was no easy 
matter to keep the Eob Eoy straight when the sea 
got high. The Dutch boys grinned at me through 
the little ports ; and other vessels as they passed 
were all duly informed by my good skipper of the 
odd fish he had caught. 

Excellent man, he was truly proud of his post, 
and his whole soul wrapt in one desire, that his 
clumsy barge might beat one still more clumsy, 
now sailing neck and neck with him, about a mile 
to the north. I quite entered into his feeling 
about this race, and admired his courtesy in stop- 
ping at my request, when so much glory might oe 
hazarded by the time lost in the act, and the 
additional labour of towing me along when at- 
tached. 

But when he had fairly beaten Mynheer van 
Dunck, and when he had received an approving 
smile from me, with a nod over my shoulder at the 
beaten rival, the wind had really become so fresh 
that my being dragged along was far more dan- 
gerous than dignified ; and in fact the whole 
arrangement gave incessant work in steering, for 
one yard of a swerve would have instantly engulfed 
me ; and it would be a wretched end for the Eob 
Eoy to founder behind a Dutchman, while the 
dripping captain would wail on the waves. So we 



200 EUDE. 

determined at the next lull between the squalls to 
cast off and be free ; and I sang out to the skipper 
to receive a bottle I pitched to him of the finest 
essence of coffee from Fortnum and Mason's,,, 
which would make him at least twenty cups. 

My directions about the proper use of this 
being given out in very bad Dutch, and in a roar- 
ing breeze, were, no doubt, so intelligible that the 
man probably drank off the whole bottle at a 
draught — and who can tell with what result ? 

At all events, now we are free. In a waste of 
waves, the river as broad as the Thames at Sheer- 
ness, and evening coming on, and thirty miles 
accomplished, and low, flat banks far off, almost 
unseen — what grand and wild and unshackled 
feelings came into Eob Koy's mind. But after 
an hour or two there arose the unmistakable 
and indescribable sensation that the tide was 
changing, and the low mudbanks might soon 
prevent me from getting in anywhere ; so we deter- 
mined to run for the nearest estuary, and chance 
it, as so many times we had done before. 

At the head of the inlet we saw a few housetops 
over the lofty embankment, and masts of some 
sloops ; and on landing there was a coast-guards- 
man, who insisted on knowing what we had on 
board. 

The fellow was gruff, and actually unbuttoned 
my bag of clothes ; and I told him indignantly that 
the mode of examination was illegal (they are 
bound to let the owner open the luggage), and then 
he wished to peer into my sponge-bag, containing 
my meagre toilette, one small brush, two inches 
broken off a comb, a tooth-brush, and a Testament. 



" MOUT." 201 

He was determined, and so was I ; and I resisted 
forcibly, and told him I w r ould shove off and go 
adrift into the night, if he insisted on making a 
fool of himself. Poor wretch ! he probably had 
caught a stranger for the first time in his long and 
dull service, so his eagerness was excusable ; and 
next day we made it up, and were good friends 
when I had sketched his portrait, and made it 
highly complimentary, and, therefore, only rather 
ugly. So I mounted the bank, and the bystanders 
seemed awed by the traveller's air — partly of cool 
dignity, partly of general madness ; so they made 
no resistance, but carried the boat into a room full 
of apples, then fetched twelve chairs in, and a bed 
was made on them — the only one for some weeks 
that was really long enough to stretch in/ and 
where there was no fear of narrow sheets, for, of 
course, I slept in my clothes. People soon came- 
in from the houses, far and near, and the room got 
full of the population of Billenberg ; and my tra- 
veller's tale was told, and the pictures shown, and 
the magnesium light — all the old, old scene, so 
very interesting to see, though dull, perhaps, to 
read of; but there were new features in it every 
time. Here, for instance, came a fine boy of 
twelve, back from school. His delight at being 
shown the canoe was truly amusing. He had a 
"boating mind," and revelled in the new sight. 
His proud mother produced an English reading- 
book from his knapsack (even the girls wear knap- 
sacks for their school-books), and I gave him an 
hour's lesson in English gratis, amid profound 
silence from the group of sailors, farmers' servants, 
and hinds. When he read the word " mouth" as 



202 SLEEPING ON APPLES. 

" mout," and I had fairly hammered the difficult 
"th" into his quick young brain, he jumped up 
and cried to his mother, " I knew it was so ; I was 
sure my teacher of English at school doesn't know 
how to speak it right. Here this Herr says 
' mouth/ and my teacher tells me to say ' mout.' ' 

The whole affair reminded me of a time when I 
w T as sailing by myself, years ago, on the embouchure 
of the Thames, and my little boat was caught on 
a sandbank, where I had to pass six hours alone in 
my ship — eleven feet long — on a hot day, waiting 
for the tide, and with only a book of logarithms 
to amuse myself with (it was for carrying my chart 
in); and thus being delayed had to put in for the 
night at a solitary house, where there was no one 
but the captain of a coal-brig. Still, by keeping 
him upon the subject of coal and colliers, we had 
a very interesting chat — a tune on one string, 
indeed, but perfectly played. 

Off to my chair-bed, and now the apples had 
been decently collected into one corner, so I was 
able to pick out the most juicy ones ; and, as no 
pretence of water-basin or such luxuries had been 
placed in the room, and I was thirsty, it would 
not be fair to inquire how many, or how many 
dozen, apples I munched while my log was noted 
up, and a few sketches added to a very curious 
collection, filling two volumes already in this 
tour. 

Good health and hard exercise make days and 
nights like this quite enjoyable. To me they 
are infinitely more so than the tedious round of 
Swiss hotels, with only the place changed, but not 
the people. 



CURIOUS VOYAGE. 203 

Next morning I launched again, and with vigour 
and a good cup of coffee on board, we pulled on 
to Gliickstadt, a large village in Holstein, one of 
the quaintest and most old-fashioned you can see. 
Eoyal progress to the hotel — really we need not tell 
this again. Then I had a long walk on the great 
sea-wall, and gazed on this splendidly rich country, 
full of good comfortable houses, teeming gardens, 
sleek oxen, winding canals, and fine old trees. 
Little wonder that such a prize has been fought 
for with sword and pen for now four hundred years. 
Five hundred Prussians were coming here next 
day. 

At the end of our walk we came to the mouth 
of the river Stoer, which (according to Chauchard's 
map) rises within a mile or two of the east side 
of Holstein, quite close to Kiel, and curiously 
enough runs the whole way across the country, 
some sixty miles, before it can satisfy its whim as 
to finding a proper exit.* 

The people and the place seemed to be so inter- 
esting that I resolved to make a canoe voyage into 
this strange country ; but this was by no means 
so easy a matter as might be supposed, for the 
navigation is intricate, and the language unutter- 
able ; but then the Eob Eoy is not to be stopped 
by difficulties ; and when it was given out in the 
town that " the Englishman" was to sail up the 
Ehyn river, and get on the net of canals which go 
forty miles into this flat land, every one was astir ; 
and, moreover, the Hamburg papers had told 

* A lake marked near this in old maps seems to be no 
longer existing. 



204 LOOKING ON. 

them what the canoe was, and where she had 
been to. 

The crowd to see the start was exceedingly 
strange to behold, for now-a-days I have such sang- 
froid on these occasions that all my attention can 
be given to looking and listening — the perfection 
of mind for really enjoying a tour. 

We still had some illustrated periodicals left in 
the sea-chest of our purser. These were given 
carefully to such of our visitors as could read 
German or Danish; and in all cases they were 
received with much gratitude. A gentleman at 
the hotel said the host had gone to Hamburg 
to attend a Freemasons' meeting ; and he asserted 
that Freemasons did not believe in the Ascension 
of our Lord. This led to a very useful conversa- 
tion about the central fact of the world's history — 
the cardinal point of revelation, which is, of course, 
the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. I had read 
with deep interest Mr. Westcott's book — " The 
Gospel of the Resurrection ; " and here in this 
far-off village was an excellent opportunity for 
using some of the deep and truthful thoughts in 
that book, which were received and discussed with 
much mind and heart by my friend, a clever 
Dane. 

The river led through a perfect series of market- 
gardens, full of the most magnificent fruits and 
vegetables, and with every foot of ground tilled 
to the water's edge, and pear-trees drooping over 
the canoe. They were capital sweet pears, I do 
assure you. Then we came, after some miles, to 
a village, where the school-children rushed out en- 
masse upon the rustic bridge, screaming joyously, 



LADY BOWERS. 205 

and every house was emptied. Next came the 
fishers' boats, and then the vegetable-boats, with 
women rowing them, and then the Rob Roy 
emerged from trees and gardens among the verdant 
pastures, with tall reeds and pink clover brushing 
my blue paddle-blades, and wondering cows staring, 
but not convinced. The evening sun reddened 
this glorious landscape, and the ripple of the long 
deep pools flapped against the oaken sides of my 
little boat, which seemed to smile at small waves 
like these, after the rough tossing of yesterday. 
You see what endless and pleasant variety there is 
in a tour of this sort. 

In a lonely place we came to an enclosure with 
seven great bulls in it. On seeing the boat they 
ran to me, snorted, bellowed, danced about. I 
splashed their faces, and rushed at them through 
the reeds, till the beasts were furious, and charged 
into the water ; but I could always keep my boat 
a foot or so from their horns, and splash their great 
broad brows. Then they retreated and ran over 
the field, with tails in the air, and ploughing up 
the soft ground with their horns ; and at last they 
fell to boxiug each other with their heads. 

In one village I noticed a man among the crowd 
who at once ran away, evidently to bring some 
one to see ; and he presently returned, carrying 
upon his back no less a person than his grand- 
mother. Her position was by no means a com- 
fortable one, for he held her by her two wrists 
over his shoulders ; and his fine young face was 
ruddy with delight that he had brought her in 
time to see. With due respect to hoary heads, I 
approached the lady and made a deep salaam ; and 



206 



GRANDMAMMA. 



she stared at me over her grandson's shoulder, 
evidently not at all satisfied about the arrange- 
ment of things in general. 




The country has several great dikes, with roads 
on their tops, just as in Holland ; and the size, 
neatness, and solidity of the houses very much 
astonished and pleased me. The Kob Eoy mean- 
dered for hours up one canal after another into 
the most out-of-the-way places, where never 
foreigner was seen. Sometimes I went into tun- 
nels — but of course without any notion of where 
they might lead to; and so there suddenly ap- 
peared in some lonely but busy farmyard an 
Englishman in a canoe, grey as to his dress, and 
beaming with smiles. 



TONGUE-TIED. 207 

In another part of the river we overtook a great 
fat market-woman rowing a heavy boat up a very 
narrow channel, and with a heap of empty baskets 
on it, which served the good dame well for a sail. 
Instantly I made chase ; but the lady did not yield 
to let the canoe pass, so we had a chat, rowing 
alongside, until we became capital friends, though 
not one word that was said had the very least 
meaning to the person addressed. I was reminded 
on this occasion of the strictures in a review of 
my book of last year's voyage. All the notices of 
the press were kind to the book as a new tale 
of new journeying; but one paper gave a sharp 
rebuke to the man who dared to travel where the 
language was one he did not know. Only think 
what a linguist this critic must become before 
he attempts a voyage such as we have described ! 
First he must learn Norwegian, then Swedish, 
then back to Danish, then Slesvig patois, next 
German, then Piatt (on the Elbe), and then at 
least four dialects of Holstein. While he tarries 
ten years till he can talk all these tongues like 
a dragoman, the Bob Koy will have merrily 
paddled over the rest of Europe. 



( 208 ) 



CHAPTER XXI. 



The Wizard — Hard Times — Buffeting — Son of a Sponge 
— Attack by Natives — White Lies — Pyramid Wave — 
Dry — His Mother. 

Sketches are a language universal ; so that, at 
least, was always available for my evening's enter- 
tainment of the wondering people I had to sit 
with sometimes, and yet could not speak to. The 
gravest seniors relaxed into smiles at a lively 
picture, and, as for the boys and girls, their 
delight was boundless. Oh, the fresh, merry ring 
of a young throat laughing. Heavily-afflicted 
adult is he, and tame and dry and withered his 
lieart's sympathy, who does not enjoy it. 

On several occasions much additional amuse- 
ment was given to the natives by a man on board 
the Eob Roy, who showed some conjuring tricks 
— all of a simple kind as regards apparatus, but 
difficult to perform, until you know how. 

Lifting a man seated on a chair with one hand ; 
passing a loaf through a straw hat without touch- 
ing it ; raising a stick with the open palm of the 
hand flat above it ; creeping into a wine-bottle, or 
threading a string through a pair of scissors ; all 
these were novelties, and were appreciated by the 
gaping spectators. 

Another favourite puzzle was sometimes left to 



THE WIZAED. 209 

a whole neighbourhood to solve ; or the passengers 
on a steamer's deck were set to unravel it ; and 
perhaps the problem may be proposed now to you 
also, with the assistance of the sketch on page 67, 
fig. 1. There is no " catch" or deception in it, 
but all is fair and honour bright ; and when you 
have found it out you can do it at once, and will 
never forget the way, and always be proud of this 
discovery. 

Take a strong needle, and place it in a pocket- 
handkerchief, so that P is the point, E the eye, 
and the parts P A and B E are on one side of the 
handkerchief, while the part A B (the dotted line) 
is on the other side. Then put a thread through 
the eye E, and under A P, and knot it at K, so 
forming a loop, which must not, however, be long 
enough to be slipped over the point P, even when 
drawn tightly. 

You are now 7 required to extricate the needle 
and thread from the handkerchief without break- 
ing the needle or the thread or the knot, or 
pricking your fingers or losing your temper. 

All these jokes and riddles are w 7 ell enough 
on shore or in fair weather, but now we have a 
practical puzzle of a far different kind. A thick 
drizzling rain, wind whistling, and muddy waves 
tossing on the Elbe were before me ; and we must 
paddle through them from Grliickstadt, or we could 
not catch the steamer to Heligoland, and save our 
plans from being quite disjointed. 

Two or three times I was inclined to give up 
the project. The steamer w r ould come, they said, 
along the other side of the river some time between 
ten and eleven o'clock ; and I must start from this 

P 



210 BUFFETING. 

side some miles distant, before nine o'clock, so as 
to pull over the bank in the middle, where an 
angry sea was rolling, with the tide one way and 
the wind opposing it. But once having resolved 
to go, we called for the last time at the telegraph- 
office, to see if any answer had come to the tele- 
gram of the preceding day, which had asked the 
captain if he would stop his steamer in the sea for 
the canoe — for unless he would stop, all the labour 
and the two hours' wetting would be in vain. No 
answer had come (though prepaid) ; and the 
boatmen all said this steamer would not stop for 
passengers on such a day. I then engaged a pilot- 
boat, which would sail further up the river, and 
hail the steamer some way above me, to point out 
the Rob Eoy in the waves ; and while the crowd 
wondered at it all, I pushed out from the little 
harbour into the great, white, rolling Elbe. 

Buffeting and boxing the waves, the Bob Roy 
behaved nobly ; and the pilots scudding alongside 
with two reefs in their sail, could not cease their 
wonder at the little thing's steadiness. " Didn't 
I take that big breaker well ?" said I. " First- 
rate," they shouted ; and then came the rollers on 
the bank, the white-crested hillocks that puzzle 
one so much, because, when rain is driving into 
your face, and a great splash of foam comes slap 
in your eyes, just at that very instant you ought 
to be most distinct in your policy, and keenly 
alive to every wave. An hour of hard work, in 
which my right arm had to bear the brunt of it, 
and slightly " gave," or felt strained, and then we 
glided into quiet water, where we could wait until 
the smoke of the approaching steamer might 



SON OF A SPONGE. 211 

appear on the leaden-coloured horizon ; but then 
I must prepare for another dash into the broken 
water. 

So we ran the canoe into a mass of tall reeds, to 
see if she had got any water. There were only- 
three u spongefuls." Then the sponge became a 
subject of interest ; it was my fourth sponge, 
and the smallest, for three had been stolen. 
Ostlers at inns cannot resist a sponge, just as men 
.at a club are lax in their morality about umbrellas. 
And while we pondered on the metaphysics .of 
kleptomania and sponges, and the pleasant theory 
that a sponge, instead of an oyster, might have 
been my great-great-great-grandfather, by the 
Darwin line, twenty-four times removed, the swell 
rose and fell sleepily among the tall reeds, which 
only rustled ; else there was blank silence. Very 
soon I heard a sharp conversation between the 
pilots and a number of men on the bank, who 
could not now see me among the reeds, but who 
had crowded down to the spot. Suddenly the 
pilot called out, " Come away, sir ! Come away, 
sir, instantly ! The men are going to catch you !" 
These natives had watched us riding over, the 
waves, and could not make out what all this 
meant; but the pilots had told them I was a 
wild Chinaman escaped from a ship, and that they 
were in chase of me. Away went the duped 
natives, and presently brought clubs, sticks, and a 
great hatchet. They were a clumsy and ignorant 
set ; but I thought it was all meant for fun, so up 
rose the captain of the Eob Eoy, his head only 
over the reed tops, and his face grimacing, and 
paddle whirled aloft, just as an escaped Chinaman 

p 2 



212 



ATTACK BY NATIVES. 



would doubtless do, with wild shrieks as an ac- 
companiment. The natives became frantic; but 
there was only mud there — no stones to be had. 
Then the pilots, to humour the joke, sailed after 




me, and splashed with their oars and lowered 
their sail and shouted aloud; w r hile the canoe 
darted here and there on the water, wildly, but 
always eluded their grasp, and sought refuge 
again in the reeds. 



WHITE LIES. 213 

How different must have been the two stories 
of the same facts related that night on one side 
and the other of the Elbe, by the pilots and the 
armed natives of the reedy island — like the chat 
at a Cabinet council after a debate on the esti- 
mates, and the talk of the deluded minority dis- 
cussing their defeat. Say, clever casuist, when 
may we deceive our neighbour ? In jest, perhaps 
— but then these natives, at least, were in solid 
earnest ; for they vigorously persevered for half- 
an-hour, even in the rain. " We must not deceive 
when it is for our own interest ?" but the exercise 
was of great benefit to me, for I might else have 
been chilled. 

As the smoke of the steamer gradually neared 
us, I found it was a fine, large, three-masted vessel, 
ouce the Britannia, which used to sail to America, 
b>ut now called the Heligoland ; and when it was 
seen that she had her sails set, I felt sure she 
would not stop to take up a passenger, and spend 
time and trouble about his boat. But the pilots 
hailed, and the captain had read of the canoe, and 
the Eob Roy I placed right before his nose, and 
so all the passengers ran forward to see the little 
skiff, as it rose now and then from the trough of a 
wave. 

It was a time of suspense, when the great black 
hull came looming on, and the foam at its bows 
and paddles showed its speed. All at once, the 
paddles, so white with foam, became red ; they had 
stopped. How I did shout " Hurrah ! " " Thanks, 
captain, thanks." 

Then before me, in this hotch-potch jumble of 
waves and mist and rain, there rose up two great 



214 PYRAMID WAVE. 

pointed crests, where the steamer's swell crossed 
the waves of the Elbe, and these must both be 
passed. 

A long wave you can calculate upon, and you 
soon come to know how to lean over in passing it, 
however obliquely. But when a wave is of the 
pyramid shape, and you must cross its very point, 
with a current bearing you sideways, it is utterly 
impossible to predict whether you will be on the 
steep slope of the right or left, and whether you 
will not be on the one side going up, and the 
other in the descent. The difficulty of dealing 
with such a doubtful matter instantaneously must 
be obvious. 

Mrs. or Miss Reader, were you ever poised on 
the cold shining edge-point of a three-sided wave ? 
If so, you need no more explanation. 

As the little canoe came rapidly to the first of 
these waves, it was so much higher and sharper 
than usual that I felt — " Here is the Eob Roy's 
grave. If in the upset now certain I let go my 
boat and hold by my paddle (the proper course 
in other cases) the steamer people will save only 
me and let the canoe drift away, for why should 
they stop for her ? Therefore I must loosen my 
hold on the paddle and cling to the boat, however 
difficult, for then they will rescue us both. But 
how ? " — and, looking up (this the last thought 
vivid on my brain), "by that boat hanging on 
the davits, I see it is ready." All this was as a 
flash of instant thought, and then a thud of angry 
muddy water struck my cheek and knocked off 
my straw hat (luckily secured by a cord), and then 
down, down, down we swooped, and again a blow., 



DRY. 215 

a twist, and a squeeze, and both waves were past, 
and I could hear the end of the word " bravo-o-o ! " 
as the mate shouted loud from the steamer 
above. 

Eight swiftly leaped I by the side of the vessel, 
and a last spiteful wave followed me running up 
the steps, and embraced me with one cold grasp 
about the loins — a drench to say " good-bye." 
The Rob Roy is safe aboard, and I dive into the 
steamer's cabin, still trembling with a certain 
thrill of excitement, of hard work done — a feat 
accomplished — three days saved — dry clothes put- 
ting on, and all the time repeating over and 
over, "I never will again board a steamer in a 
gale." 

Presently my cabin door opened, and a raw, 
vulgar lad looked in, holding his hand to shake 
mine, and claiming acquaintance as a Scotchman, 
though his dialect was so excessively broad that 
we took him for a German. This boy of nineteen 
has come straight from the island of Lewis, in the 
Hebrides, to Heligoland, to take charge of the 
fishery. " Where do you come from ? " said I. 
"I'm frae Logiemurchie." "And what places 
have .you ever seen?" "Weel, I hae been at 
Stornoway, an' Aberdeen, an' Dundee, and — and 
Aberdeen." "And for whom are you going to 
work ? " « For Mr. Bell. D'ye ken Mr. Bell ?— 
No ken Mister Bell of London ? Hoot, I thought 
ye'd ken him. He's a maun wi' white hair." 

There was an opportunity of having a very 
useful and uncommonly plain-said conversation 
with this young fellow, sent so far and so soon 
as a green Caledonian among the rough and dissi- 



216 HIS MOTHER. 

pated people of the North Sea harbours. He took 
it well what was spoken. If a man has a mother, 
and he is away from her, and a stranger speaks of 
her, it must be a downright hard heart that does 
not take it well and softly. 



( 217 ) 



CHAPTER XXII. 



Heligoland — The Incongruous — Can't get out — Law in 
a Nutshell — Bed Tape — Island of Dune — Envy — 
Eound the Island — Sharks — Memo — On the Weser — 
Hanover — Tourists' Glances. 

Here before us is the little ruddy island of Heli- 
goland, with just enough soil to plant the brave 
old English flag upon, a miniature colony of the 
all-wide British Empire ; and a very curious, in- 
teresting place, by no means easy to describe; 
but w T e may try. Take one of those flat, richly- 
red tiles, which has moss brightly green on its 
smooth surface, and chop off an old three-cornered 
piece an inch broad and two inches long, and put 
it on a blue slate, which will be the sea, while 
there is a grassy level top and sharp vertical 
sides of red rock, and along the shorter side and 
at its foot you have a cluster of houses, white, 
blue, grey, of every colour and shape, huddled 
picturesquely close together. 

We land from huge boats, carried on men's 
backs through the last rolling w r ave ; and sud- 
denly we are on English soil, but with scarce one 
English sight or sound beside us. The swarthy 
sailors are gabbling a perfectly new language 
without a grammar, not written, but still their 
own. Their fathers had the same when they 



218 HELIGOLAND. 

victualled fleets in the days of Van Troinp, and 
harried many a hapless crew in wintry nights lost 
in the wide, wide sea. All these people together 
are but 2,300 souls ; but other thousands, nearly 
all Germans, come here to bathe, crowding every 
morning to cross to Dune Island, with its pearly 
strand and emerald waves. Then they will take 
a puff and a cafe in the pavilion, and a walk on 
the plank promenade, and a climb up the one 
stair that leads with two hundred steps to the 
Upper Town, where, from the neat, clean balcony 
of a logis perched on the rock, you can look over 
far-off water, and see the broad golden band un- 
rolled upon it from the full moon as it rises 
slowly. British soil ; but where is the Briton ? 
Why, there is scarcely one Englishman in the 
place, except the Governor ; and His Excellency 
is a right good one to make up for this scarcity. 
He was very kind to me, being once a canoe man 
and a Guardsman ; and as the Eob Koy book of 
last year was on his table, he needed no intro- 
duction from the paddling visitor. 

During the three days we spent here the sensa- 
tion of " incongruity " was most powerful. A 
charming island quite neglected. An English, 
land full only of foreigners. A rock with wooden 
houses. A poor town with rich visitors. A 
splendid beach without a pier. The airiest of 
nests with drains so foul. Crowds of thinking 
Germans, but only one book-shop. Planks for 
pavement, where no tree grows. One church, one 
school, a good brass band, and a beautiful glee 
chorus. What a neat, little, pretty, open, con- 
fined, old-fashioned, interesting, neglected place 



can't get out. 21!> 

to be sure! A huge fortune might readily be 
made by investing capital here. This little ruby 
in the green sea could be set off with gold as^ 
a gem. 

Heligoland, not so large as Hyde Park, is about 
fifty miles from the mouth of the Elbe, and sixty 
from Bremerhaven on the Weser. 

Some assert, others deny, that the rocks are 
rapidly corroding, or, at any rate, disappearing. 

Certainly the slips or falls of rocks in many 
places seem very recent ; and the water is coloured 
ruddy for a long distance round the island. Also, 
on a map of Chauchard's, published in 1800, w r e 
may observe that the contour of the island " called 
Heylegeland" is given (see page 119, fig. 6), and 
this is very different from our drawing on page 
224, which shows its present shape. Moreover,, 
this map of seventy years ago does not indicate 
the sandy island of Dyne, or Dune (pronounced 
nearly Deeny), which is due east of the other. 

The water in Heligoland is derived from large 
tanks, which collect the rain from the roofs of the 
houses. 

The name, signifying Holy Island, is said to be 
derived from the fact that the Saxon goddess 
Phoseta was worshipped here. 

The inhabitants seem very fond of the little 
place ; but I confess that there were two feelings 
always present in my mind during my brief visit 
— the sensation of " Falling over the edge," and 
of c; Can't get out," both of which one recognises 
as the well-known staples of nightmare horrors. 

Should you mean to stop here for the winter,, 
make up your mind to get letters by a sailing- 



220 LAW IN A NUTSHELL. 

boat a few times in the month, and salt meat and 
salt fish — that which is dried before your eyes, 
flapping about on strings in the rope-walk ' Eegent 
Street/ and in all the other streets ; or you may 
rise early in the morning, and put up your net to 
catch one of the woodcocks that fly over the town. 
Many curious birds, not seen anywhere else so 
easily, stop to rest at Heligoland, which is thus 
an excellent station for the ornithologist. 

The new Constitution, dating from 1864, has 
some features worth noticing, as the form of 
Colonial government most lately sanctioned by 
Britain, and for a possession so compact and so 
minute. These may be gathered from the ordi- 
nances enacted in the island, and approved by 
Parliament at home. The Government is con- 
ducted by a Governor, who is also Commander-in- 
Chief (of any future army and navy), and by a 
~" Legislative Council " of twelve appointed by the 
Crown, and of twelve elected by the colonists 
(with a small property-qualification for franchise), 
who together form the "Combined Court," and 
from whom the Governor selects five as an 
" Executive Council." The Crown may disallow 
laws enacted by the Combined Court, and enact 
others, which, if involving taxation, must be rati- 
fied by the Court. The Governor appoints judges, 
officers, and ministers, and may remit fines and 
extend pardons. He may also suspend any mem- 
ber of the Legislative Council. There are three 
stipendiary magistrates and a Court of Session 
appointed by the Governor as an appeal court 
and to try civil cases (with a jury if it is de- 
manded). Three-fourths of the jury in civil 



RED TAPE. 221 

cases, and all of them in criminal cases, must 
agree to a verdict. 

The proceedings at elections are conducted by 
four " Quartermasters " for the " two grand dis- 
tricts " of the island. These are pilot officers, and 
form ;f an amicable Court as regards wrecking and 
pilot cases." Strict rules provide for the duties- 
and rewards of boats saving vessels in distress, 
and prohibit the bargaining for salvage in suck 
cases on the hard terms often enacted in old 
times. The clergyman appoints a churchwarden, 
and another is chosen from the Legislative Council.. 
These tw r o manage "the poor house" and send 
round "the monthly voluntary poor book," and 
inspect the repairs of the church and the school 
buildings. Every child between the age of six 
and fourteen must go to school, being compelled 
by the police, and may be fined 7s. 6d. for a day's 
absence. The school is managed by a " Directing 
Committee," including the clergymen and mem- 
bers of the Combined Court. This you see is their 
School board. Parents who are impudent to 
teachers may be fined 1 5s. " For the purpose of 
heating the school-rooms, each child, according 
to the old-established custom, shall bring daily 
one piece of turf, not cut in halves or quarters^ 
but according as it is sold on the island." " Should 
the cold become so excessive that more firing is 
required, or that coals become necessary, applica- 
tion shall be made by the teacher, through the 
superintending clergyman, to the Directing Com- 
mittee, who will act according to their judgment^ 
and report in their accounts to the Finance Com- 
mittee of the Combined Court." The routine for 



222 ISLAND OF DUNE. 

fetching a scuttle of coals being thus particular, 
it may well be supposed that the regulations for 
each hour of instruction of the four classes in the 
school are very distinct. For the older children 
live hours a week are devoted to religious teach- 
ing, and two to English ; while the other classes 
have also their time apportioned. Taxation " shall 
be arranged according to the personal means of 
each inhabitant of the colony," by the Combined 
'Court. 

There are few duties on imports — about two- 
pence a bottle for spirits, and three-halfpence for 
wine. The oyster fishery is conducted by the 
Government, as the inhabitants neglected this 
profitable work; and the regulations for this 
enterprise occupy the paragraphs of the last Ordi- 
nance Ave need allude to, and so ends our legal 
study to-night. 

In the cool grey morn we float off early to the 
sandy isle of Dune, with its swelling waves of 
purest green and beach of sparkling white. 
Whole families go in great boats for a long day's 
stay, the mothers and nurses to knit and gossip, 
while the children bathe and dig, or sail their toy 
boats, catch crabs, roll in the soft sand, squall, 
fight, or dine under the verandah of the cafe, as 
children ought to do. Heligoland lives by Dune. 
If the sand were to be washed away the houses 
on the red rock opposite would be all " to let." 

A great hubbub was raised about this patch of 
sand a short time ago, by some one asserting that 
rabbits had been imported here, and that these 
would burrow the heart out of poor Dune, and the 
waves would then sweep away its mangled re- 



ENVY. 223 

mains. I started in search of these rabbits, being 
determined to eye out at least one of the rapa- 
cious creatures ; but not one was to be found 
anywhere. 

In one of the boats full of children I observed a 
toy rocking-horse ; and it seems that no other 
horse or beast of burden has ever been on the 
island; where, also, the milk for your breakfast 
is that of the little sheep tethered on the cliffs, 
and fed by old women in red gowns and huge 
bonnets. 

To move at all in Heligoland you must either 
walk up and down stairs — the stairs by which 
alone the upper surface of the rock can be reached 
— or you must go in a boat. This supposes, of 
course, that you have already promenaded along 
the main street, which is a " rope- walk," with a 
man engagingly spinning a yarn beside you, and 
moving backwards with a great bunch of tow 
round his waist. But let us, therefore, embark. 

The boatmen regarded me with jealousy and a 
tinge of contempt. At first they felt sure this 
Rob Eoy cockle-shell was a mere English toy, 
and that it might float in the sun, but would be 
swamped at once by a wavelet in the breeze. 
Very soon they found she was faster than their 
own big, clumsy boats; and when we got out 
in the full-drawn swell, and the canoe bounded 
over the water, and round and round their labour- 
ing boats joyously, their notions were changed, 
and wonder filled them instead of ridicule. This 
bathing-place of Dune is one of the prettiest little 
lijoux ever was seen, and we enjoyed a half-hour 
there very much. 



224 



BOUND THE ISLAND. 



Next day we determined to paddle round the 
main island; and the Governor and his wife, 
" Excellenza," as I heard her called, came in their 
boat, manned by a fine crew, rigged out in true 
British-sailor uniform, and so we set off in a lovely 
calm. The cliffs w T ere studded with visitors 
perched aloft to see; and they slowly followed 




us high up while we skimmecl over the long and 
gentle swells below. The canoe could, of course, 
run about here as it pleased her, and she dipped 
into little bays, or shot through arches in the 
rock, or peeped into darksome caves where the 
water gurgled far in, and then rushed out, afraid 
of the blackness. 
This was indeed a holiday trip for the Rob Roy; 



SHARKS. 225 

moving with a quiet and almost processional pace, 
and new things every moment to be seen. How 
about the fell principle of " nationalities," and 
the Pole-Magyar-Czech-Celt doctrine, that "the 
peoples " ought to govern themselves ? In plainer 
words — is it right for England to rule Heligoland? 
Is it better, juster, and more humane to keep as 
Governor there an Englishman, thoroughly anxious 
to maintain rights, liberty, and order, or to cast 
the little isle adrift, like an open boat at sea 
without a week's provisions, and where sharks and 
Bisinarcks do abound ? The islanders here are 
not at all Germans; yet they must know that if 
they were cast off by England, they would be 
snapped up in a month by Prussia, and their 
green grass would be soon cut into glacis, and 
forts would replace the hotels. Let them beware 
of the fate of the Ionian Islands, who exchanged 
happy freedom under the broad aegis of Britannia 
for a dull servitude under the brigand rule of 
Greece. 

Gambling is allowed in this island, and to hear 
this startled me ; but it was explained that there 
is an "enormous national debt" of 7000Z., and 
as England, which receives nothing from the 
island, objected to pay this, and so to stop the 
rouge et noir (a main source of revenue), there 
was nothing for it but to allow the people to 
gamble on for eight w 7 eeks every year until 1871, 
when it is believed that the debt was liquidated. 

Steaming off into the green sea in a steamer 
with "twin-screws/ 5 the red cliffs of the island 
became blue in the distance, and then other isles 
appeared. They are part of the chain of banks 

Q 



226 MEMO. 

that gird the coast all round the north of Holland 
and the Zuider Zee. One of these is Norderney — 
a name to be inflected with a sturdy drop on the 
last syllable ; and this is another bathing-place, 
quite a fashionable resort, if one may judge from 
the frequent advertisements about it. A new 
submarine telegraph-cable has just been laid from 
this island to Lowestoft ; and a good deal is to be 
seen and learned at this part of the world from 
these out-of-the-way places one has not even heard 
the names of yet in England. [Mental resolve 
on board the Eob Eoy — " A cruise about this part 
of the world would be an excellent trip for another 
year."]^ 

My fellow-passengers were a judge from Liibeck, 
with his two daughters, all speaking English well, 
and an Austrian nobleman, who had a long talk 
with me in French about education and lodging- 
houses and priests and timber and religion ; and 
now we are arrived at Bremerhaven, where the Eob 
Eoy enters a third-rate inn, with a courteous host 
who would place the canoe in the bowling-green ; 
but as we found the tide was still running up the 
river, my boat was launched, and her well-washed 
sails unfurled on the broad, sedate Weser, and hie 
away ! we are off again for one more cruise as of 
yore. This was a long and delightful trip, but 
with little to see that can be put on paper. In- 
deed, a very great deal of the enjoyment of this 
voyage is of that peculiar kind which though felt 
very strongly sounds weak to tell. 

How seldom it is that in ordinary travelling we 

* Fulfilled in the summer of 1871 with great satisfaction. 



HANOVEE. 227 

can say with truth, " I wish this hour to be many 
hours just so — this day to be a week as it is now." 
The test of satisfaction is that you are not sated 
when it is done ; and certainly in this fuost inter- 
esting cruise I have over and over again wished 
the present " now " to be much prolonged. 

The hotel was called the " Hanover," for the dot 
of land it is built on was part of that kingdom ; 
but now, of course, it is " Bismarcked " into the 
Fatherland. It was curious to visit these little 
bits of various territories in one afternoon's paddle, 
especially as in a very short time they were all 
incorporated in Prussia. 

What will be the effect of all these changes on 
the religious state and education of Germany? 
Perhaps while things are thus in transition it may 
be interesting to consider some particulars, which 
I obtain from a pamphlet just published anony- 
mously, but understood to be written by a well- 
known traveller. It is called " The Church of 
Eome under Protestant Governments ; " and 
some of the most important conclusions arrived 
at by the writer, after a personal investigation 
last year in Prussia, we have given in the 
Appendix. 

A mere traveller's views about the deeper poli- 
tics, civil and ecclesiastical, of a foreign people, 
are very likely to be erroneous. Even in our own 
land, the great questions of Eeform, of Free 
Church, and of Popery, require the study for 
years of a resident in England, Scotland, or 
Ireland, while India cannot be comprehended 
without the loss of your liver. 

But one thing does strongly arrest us in 

Q 2 



228 tourists' glances. 

looking at Prussia — how quiet are the religious 
sections. 

It is, however, the calm of stagnation. There 
is little ferment, for the yeast is dead. The be- 
lievers do not believe even enough to tremble. 
Is anybody in downright earnest about religion, or 
is Paul's injunction turned upside down, as if it 
were " First peaceable, then pure ? " 

This may be a pleasant, but certainly it is a 
dangerous state. Christ did not come to settle us 
in this way. Better far, with all its turmoil and 
discord, is the restlessness of England awake, and 
the ship of truth tossing in the waves and storms 
from all sides — Irish Papists and rebels, Oxford 
Apists and rituals, the priests and the ribbonmen 
of the church and the chapel. 

The wind is high, but the Ship will not sink, 
for there is One who is Highest walking on the 
waves. 



( 229 ) 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



River Gcste — Eoast Beef — Horrid ! — Salt Beef. 

But the log of the Eob Eoy must float along 
the water, and not become fixed on the platform 
either of politics or religion ; so we are- embarked 
again in the canoe for a trip up the river Geste, 
where the usual reception awaited her; and the 
pleasure of the Hanoverians was all the same as if 
their kingdom had not just been swallowed alive. 
Nine-tenths of the common people, indeed, seem 
to care very little as to who rules them. But we 
may well pity the poor blind King of Hanover, 
who has built the splendid docks at Bremerhaven, 
and now sees them quietly annexed by Prussia, 
and six men-of-war lying there, all with the Berlin 
flag. "Sees " them, I say, for he says he "sees" 
always ; and, with the smallest- minded vanity, he 
insists, poor man, upon being treated in private as 
if he were not stone-blind. 

At length, as we loll on the waves where the 
Geste falls into the Weser, there sails down 
towards us the Falke steamer, in which we are 
going to England. 

All the passengers seem to know the Eob Eoy 
well. It has filled paragraphs in their papers until 
they have been pestered by it, and they (and 
perhaps you) have voted it to be a bore. Still, the 



230 ROAST BEEF. 

ladies on board the steamer, and the ladies on 
shore who come to see them off, are charmed with 
the canoe, and they cluster around it and pat its 
travelled sides. " How interesting ! To see, indeed, 
the real Rob Roy canoe ! Who would have thought 
it ? " Ay, who indeed ! 

Hoist her up, good Captain, and you, Mr. Mate, 
give a tender, helping hand. Now she is carefully 
stowed aboard, keel uppermost, and the lowing of 
290 great fat bullocks soon announces what sort of 
fellow-passengers we have to carry. Poor brutes, 
they are packed together in three tiers, one over 
the other. 

Oh, the roast beef of old England ! The sad 
twinges borne by that " undercut " before we eat 
the sirloin in London — the Slesvig thumps to 
drive it to a pen on the Weser, the German 
whacks to force it up a gangway on board, the 
haulings and shoves, the wrenchings of horns and 
screwing of tails to pack it in the hold of the 
steamer, the hot thirsty days and cold hungry 
nights of the passage, the filth, the odour, the 
feverish bellowing, and the low dying moan at 
each lurch of the sea— who can sum up these for 
one bullock's miseries ? and there are thousands 
every day. Who dare tell them, or ought to tell 
them, unless these cruelties can be stopped and 
these sufferings put an end to ? But they can 
and they will be relieved, for good and wise men 
have taken this subject in hand.* 

* An agitation on this subject has at last resulted in great 
amelioration of these miseries. The account of our passage 
in the Falke was published separately for this purpose, and 
had a wide circulation. 



HORRID ! 



231 



Our captain, and indeed the crew and the 
drovers, did not appear to be heartless in the 
matter. It is the system and plan of shipping 
cattle at all which must be amended. To put 
suffering, dying bullocks in the same steamer 




with passengers is utterly a mistake. The vessel 
cannot be used for both purposes without being 
unfit for either, since the two are quite incom- 
patible. 



232 SALT BEEF. 

If a wretched bullock becomes at all sea-sick, 
lie speedily dies. If he is even weaker than his 
unhappy companions, and lies down after two 
days and nights of balancing on sloppy, slippery 
boards, he is trampled under the others' hoofs, and 
squeezed by their huge bodies, and suffocated by 
the pressure and foulness. 

Through the livelong night, while we Christians 
on board are sleeping in our berths, these horrid 
scenes are enacted, and no one to see them. 

Morning comes, and the dead must be taken 
from the living. A great boom is rigged up, and 
as we lean over the rail to look on there is a 
chain let down, and the steam-winch winds and 
winds it tight and straining with some strong 
weight below, far, far down, in the lowest of the 
three tiers of "filet de boeuf," where no light 
enters, and whence a Stygian reeking comes. 

Slowly there comes up first the black, frowning, 
murdered head and horns and dull blue eyes and 
ghastly grinning face of a poor dead bullock, then 
his pendent legs and his huge long carcase. 

To see the owner's mark on his back they scrape 
away the slush and grime, then he is swung over 
the sea, and a stroke of the axe cuts the rope 
round his horns. Down with a splash falls the 
vast heavy carcase ; and 20Z. worth of meat floats 
on a wave or two, then it is engulfed. Another 
and another, and twenty-two are thus hauled up 
and cast into the sea, and this too, on the first day 
of a very calm passage. What must it be in a 
storm ? Oh, the roast beef of old England ! 



( 233 ) 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

The Cornwall — Bunning over a Steamer — Gushing — 
Queen Elizabeth — The Last Peril — Eoad to Death 
— Driven Mad — Touching Sight. 

After two nights at sea, we sight the shores of 
Essex, and fleets of full-sailed ships converging 
show us the mouth of the mighty, wealth-bearing 
Thames. Here are five young sailor-lads on our 
deck who are coming back to their homes after a 
three years' cruise. They soon get fond of the 
crew of the Kob Eoy ; and it is a good time to say 
words of warning, of kindness, of encouragement, 
of home, of mothers, of Bibles, of life and of death, 
of heaven and of Christ. It is our last opportu- 
nity during this summer journey, and it is not 
thrown away. 

Thames Haven is about ten miles below Graves- 
end, and when the steamer stops here the Kob 
Eoy, impatient as to waiting until all the live 
oxen are put ashore, slides over into the water and 
up with the flag. Hurrah ! we are paddling again. 
Never was there a finer day for a canoe than the 
29th of September ; and, on the rising tide, among 
a whole crowd of ships, the little oaken argonaut 
cheerily flits by. A Swedish barque passes, and 
I take hold of her for a chat. Nay, she belongs 
to Mr. Dixon, of Sweden, and has come straight 
from Stockholm, so the canoe is at once recog- 
nised on board as an old friend. Paddling along 



234 



THE CORNWALL. 



then to Purfleet, where I had been well pleased 
last year (resting my first Sunday in the old Eob 
Boy), I came ashore, and the people ran out to 
meet me from the hotel; and the boys in the 
Eeformatory school-ship Cornwall " manned " 
the bulwarks, and all gave a ringing cheer, for 
the captain of the canoe had paid them also a 
visit twelve months ago. 




A good lunch was on board the Eob Eoy in a 
few minutes, and she sped on and on, till, at a 
distance, I saw the funnel and masts of a great 
steamer, the Foyle, which had been sunk by a 
collision in the river, and we made straight for 
her midships ; and though the men in boats around 
shouted to warn, and ordered to go back, the Eob 



KUNNING OY&R A STEAMER. 235 

Koy actually paddled right over her deck, with a 
powerful stream rushing and hissing through the 
rigging, and many tangled ropes all hanging 
about, exulting at last that she had certainly run 
over a steamer, though no steamer had ever run 
over her. 

For a thousand miles and more she has carried 
me safely ; and three hundred of this when sailing. 
Twenty-five steamers have borne \ us both for 
another good thousand miles on lake and sea and 
river, and for five hundred miles we have gone by 
rail. Yet here is the boat as stanch and straight, 
and almost as neat and polished as in hot July ; 
and the crew, though bronzed and bearded, are 
all perfectly well. Only two months, and less 
than 501. have been spent in this delightful 
cruise ; and yet how many new incidents, thoughts, 
words, and deeds, have been graven in memory 
during that little time ! I w 7 onder myself at the 
complete success of the voyage ; and I most thank- 
fully acknowledged the continued blessings and 
goodness from on High that have followed it all 
through. 

The log of my first canoe cruise may have ap- 
peared rather too enthusiastic in its expression of 
the delights of the paddle, but this would be ex- 
cused because it was a first trip, and in a new way. 

But matter-of-fact people will perhaps resent a 
second sentimental log, and expect that in a 
second voyage, just as on a second wedding-day, 
the " gushing " time is done. 

Not so ; for this northern cruise was even more 
enjoyable than the other, since I was more at ease 
in it, and had more confidence and comfort, and 



236 gushIng. 

a better boat and more wind and more resources 
and more novelty of people and of scene. Perhaps, 
also, more danger ; and now about this danger of 
canoeing let us say a word. 

In the first place, in the canoe you endanger 
only yourself; no boatman, no sailor-boy, no 
mountain-guides or porters, no climbing comrade, 
no Arab slave, no horse or mule, or ass even, 
except yourself. The lonely canoeist has the 
minimum of responsibility, while he has the maxi- 
mum of capacity for enjoyment. To have an- 
other life in charge is a serious drawback on 
adventure. 

In olden days, when the Lord Chancellor rode 
in state, and the Queen was behind him on a 
pillion, it must have doubled his anxiety and 
halved his enjoyment — even of a steady amble 
through the City — to think that if his palfrey 
shied Elizabeth might break her neck. To steer 
a sailing-boat when a lady is in it is a misery to 
me, not a pleasure. As for the captain of a 
Cunarder with three hundred souls on board, I 
wonder that he can ever laugh and talk and sleep 
with so many lives in keeping. 

Some people think, however, that to risk even 
one's own life in a canoe is wrong ; but surely this 
depends on how much risk. Every manly exercise 
has risk, with gun or rifle, horse or cricket-ball, 
running, climbing, skating, rowing, driving, boxing, 
fencing, wrestling, nay, even in fishing, and in the 
very walk of a "constitutional" you have risk of 
life and limb. 

Nor is it only abroad and in desert places that 
exercise has most risk, though it may have most 



THE LAST PEKIL. 237 

romance, and may sound, when told, as most full 
of danger. 

In the home life of England, and in common 
clays and places, we meet risk that must be en- 
countered, but must not be narrated, just because 
it is common. 

And yet we must now do this very thing, being 
forced to tell truly the last dangerous venture of 
our cruise, though it happened in England ; for it 
is the law of all logs that no page may be omitted 
from their history.* 

Before reaching home to place the little Kob 
Boy on the writing-table where she now reclines, 

* The following have been my six best voyages alone : — 

1. " A Thousand Miles in the Kob Roy Canoe." 8th 
edition, price 2s. 6d. 

2. " The Eob Roy on the Baltic." 3rd edition. 

3. " The Voyage Alone in the Yawl Rob Roy." 2nd 
edition, price 5s. 

4. " The Rob Roy on the Jordan, Nile, Red Sea, and 
Gennesareth." 3rd edition, price 12s., coloured pictures, with 
80 illustrations, maps, &c. 

5. " The Rob Roy's Cruise in Cornwall and the Scilly 
Isles." Published in the ' Record.' 

6. " The Rob Roy on the Zuider Zee." A Dutch Cruise, 
published in the ' Times,' the ' Graphic,' and in ' Evening 
Hours,' with illustrations. (Hunts.) 

Lectures were given by the voyager descriptive of three of 
these cruises without fee or expenses, but on condition that 
£100 was to be guaranteed as a direct result of each lecture, 
to be paid over to churches, schools, hospitals, asylums, or 
various other societies. The lectures on the Jordan Cruise 
produced for these purposes £5600, and about £1000 more 
was produced by the others. All the expenses of the various 
cruises were amply covered by the sale of their ' logs.' The 
pleasure of lone sailing is thus proved to be neither expensive 
nor selfish. 



238 EOAD TO DEATH. 

with sails all set and flag triumphant, but at rest, 
I had to cross one more stream, not broad but 
strong, and it was now most strong and dangerous. 

Though its course was long, there was only one 
bridge over it, and this was old and steep, and, in 
fact, inaccessible, serving only to contract the 
channel, and to confuse its current in eddies and 
back-lashes round the piers of the arch. Here 
another powerful stream entered the first, and 
numerous smaller rivulets poured in on various 
sides ; one of them running in an ancient course 
hard by an old palace of King Hal. It was dark 
when we came to the verge of the current. It was 
raining too, and the channel was swollen — how 
deep I could not say, but much deeper than usual. 
First we examined the conformation of the banks, 
and this was very curious. On each side was a 
narrow stratum of smooth stone, and above this 
rose, high on the right and left, steep, beetling- 
cliffs of indurated clay, red and yellow and black, 
with vitrifactions at intervals, and here and there 
some wood. 

The current flowed apace, and heaved up with 
violent surges, bearing along great logs of timber, 
piles of wicker work, carts and furniture, probably 
from distant villages, even small haystacks, and 
horses and dogs and other live animals. Some- 
times, in such floods a whole herd of bullocks have 
been hurried past, noisily lowing in the dark, 
gusty night ; but even now, when we came to it, 
the sounds and cries were most appalling of men 
and even women, carried by in crowds, some of 
them clinging desperately to the great piles of 
w r ood that seemed in the dusk like houses on 



DKIVEN MAD. 23!) 

wheels, with windows and doors looming high in 
the din and hurly-burly. 

I cried aloud to one of these, which was covered 
to the roof with human beings; but the only 
answer to my hail was a wild shriek to shudder 
at — " Bankcity-bank ! " he cried — the despairing- 
wail of some poor hapless one, made maniac by 
his peril ; and yet, to show how reckless men are, 
even in danger, there were two youths perched 
high on the crazy drifting roof, who quietly 
smoked their pipes while the great machine 
rolled from side to side, as if it would dash against 
the iron light-houses on the edge of the stream, or 
the cliffs of red clay beyond. 

For safety's sake men were stationed on the 
flat ledges by the channel below, as a sort of 
Coastguard, clad in blue, and wearing black hel- 
mets. They could readily tell us where was the 
best ford, but they could not aid us more. 

There was no ferry-boat by which to cross this 
dreadful current ; as for my canoe, it would have 
been madness to paddle here. How I wished to 
be safe in her again on the deepest part of Venern ! 
Then I thought of getting a horse ; but this was 
impossible. Yet cross the stream I must, and the 
only way left was to ford it on foot. 

Experience gained in the other stormy days of 
the tour here came to my aid ; and I looked about 
for some friendly island w 7 hereon to rest for a 
moment, even in mid stream, but none was near. 
Indeed, where these islands do occur (rarely 
enough in the 2000 miles of the current's course) 
they are often crowded by people, trembling and 
frightened, who can move neither back nor for- 



240 



TOUCHING SIGHT. 



ward from fear — and well may they be afraid, for 
the impetuous torrent maims or slays outright 
200 people every year. 

By my side, then, I observed a band of little 
children, timidly clasping each other's tiny, cold, 
wet hands, and gazing on the fearful scene. 
One of these babes carried in her arms a still 
smaller babelet, also a jug of beer, a weekly news- 
paper, a pat of butter, and a red herring — a 
touching sight to see, while the rain poured ruth- 
lessly, and the shouting of men and jingling of 
bells and splashing of water mingled with the 
roar of the dark, fast stream. 

Clutching my log for a life-buoy, and nerved 

for a desperate effort, I dashed in with a shout. 

* * * * * * 

Aha ! we have safely crossed the Strand ; and here 
is the dark old bridge of 




TEMPLE BAK. 



APPENDIX. 



(A.) — Canoe Chat. 

(B.) — Description of the Eob Eoy. 

(C.) — Danish Missions. 

(D.) — Prussian Churches and Schools. 



( 242 ) 



APPENDIX. 



(A.) — Canoe Chat. 

(a) Eemaeks on the management of a canoe, espe- 
cially in currents, have "been given at length in the 
Appendix of my former book ; and it need only be 
said here that another year's experience cod firms 
what has there been stated. 

(b) Experiments as to the use of leeboards for 
improving the sailing qualities of a canoe have con- 
vinced me that a light leeboard of sheet-iron or of 
deal will be a useful addition to the gear. 

(c) For a long day's work, light shoes are very 
desirable in the canoe. The benefit of them in allow- 
ing full play to the feet is most remarkable. Of 
course, another pair of thick-soled shoes are absolutely 
necessary for rough work on shore. 

(d) Wheels for transporting the canoe on land 
have been used with approval during some short 
voyages in England and on the Ehine. The wheels 
are about one foot in diameter, and with their fittings 
weigh from 6 lb. to 9 lb. But for a long voyage, so 
great an addition to the cargo is a very serious 
matter. During two of my long trips the want of 
wheels was really felt only for one mile, and to 
carry 8 lb. weight for 1999 miles in order to use 
them for one, is not economical. On shore you 
should husband your strength by obtaining men to 
help ; and in foreign lands you generally have one 
man in each town as a guide to the hotel. The 
safest place, too, for your boat in a crowded, narrow 



DESCRIPTION OF THE ROB HOY. 243 

street is upon men's shoulders, and not among the 
legs of a dozen young urchins, and the wheels of 
carts. On the portages of the Vrangs Elv or the 
Danube, wheels would have been utterly useless, and 
only so many more pounds' weight to carry through 
the thick forests or over the rocks. In my third 
Eastern cruise I carried a small pair of wheels, only 
2 lb. weight, for ten thousand miles — and never used 
them once ! 

(e) And here it may be mentioned that ladies, too, 
have taken to the paddle, and they seem to enjoy the 
pleasures of the canoe. It certainly is much easier 
for a , lady to paddle than to pull two sculls in a 
rowing-boat ; for there are no " crabs " to be caught 
in the canoe, and the fair canoeiste can always see 
where she is going, while she leans gracefully back 
on a cushion, and there is ample room in the 4C well" 
for the moderately profuse crinoline now in vogue. 

N.B. — Ladies are eligible as honorary members of 
the Canoe Club; and it is to be remembered that 
two canoes paddling in company can keep much 
nearer together than two boats with oars. 

(/) "Paddle your own canoe." The earliest 
claimant I can find for the use of these words in 
verse is Mr. George Wortabot, a Syrian gentleman, 
whose MS. bears date 1860. Those of us who have 
obeyed the injunction contained in that doggrel line 
will endorse the opinion of the paddler in Notting- 
ham, who writes, " I have all the pleasure of a yacht 
without the expense." 



(B.)— Description of the Eob Roy. 

Among the many who are building canoes, there may 
be some persons who have undue expectations as to 

b 2 



244 APPENDIX — (B). 

what such boats can do. Now, the three kinds of 
canoes, for racing, for sailing, and for travelling, are 
quite distinct in their forms and capabilities. 

A long, narrow, light racing-canoe, with a long, 
spooned paddle, will attain great speed. 

A sailing-canoe with flat bearing, and some keel, 
will sail off the wind admirably. 

The " travelling-canoe " has to sail, to paddle, and 
to bear portage and rough handling. 

The endeavour to combine these three qualities in 
suitable proportions, without sacrificing more of any 
of them than can be well dispensed with, has led to 
the building of the canoe now to be described ; and 
the new Bob Eoy has been a great success. 

The old Eob Eoy canoe (of 1865), which made a 
voyage through France, Germany, &c„ was specially 
built for the purpose ; and it is described in the book 
which gives an account of that journey. A more 
detailed description was given in the Transactions of 
the Institute of Naval Architects, but the numerous 
improvements suggested during that voyage, and in 
careful experiments afterwards, were embodied in the 
new Eob Eoy, so that this novel, inexpensive, and 
healthful mode of travelling might be facilitated. 

The Eob Eoy was designed to sail steadily, to 
paddle easily, to float lightly, to turn readily, and to 
bear rough usage on stones and banks, and in carts, 
railways, and steamers ; to be durable and dry, as 
well as comfortable and safe. To secure these objects 
every plank and timber was carefully considered 
beforehand, as to its size, shape, and material, and the 
result has been most successful. 

In the efforts to obtain a suitable canoe for this 
purpose ready made, it was soon found that boat- 
builders might be proficient at the cabinet-makers' 
work of their calling, without any knowledge of the 
principles required for a new design, especially when 




M B 



Fig. 2. 




Scale of Fig . s 7 So 2, % ofari< inch to blw foot. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE ROB ROY. 245 

sailing, paddling, and carrying had to be provided 
for at once, and the requirements for each were not 
understood, except by those who had personally ob- 
served them, and had known how to work the paddle 
as well as the saw and the plane. 

A canoe ought to fit a man like a coat ; and 
to secure this the measure of the man should be 
taken for his canoe. The first regulating standard 
is the length of the man's foot, which will determine 
the height of the canoe from keel to deck ; next, the 
length of his leg, which governs the size of the " well ;" 
and then the weight of the crew and luggage, which 
regulates the displacement to be provided for. The 
following description is for a canoe to be used by a 
man 6 feet high, 12 stone weight, and with boots 1 
foot long in the sole. 

The Rob Boy is built of the best oak, except the 
top streak of mahogany, and the deck of fine cedar. 
The weight, without fittings, is 60 lb., and with all 
complete, 71 lb. Lightness is not of so much conse- 
quence in this case as good lines, for a light boat if 
crank, will tire the canoeist far more in a week's 
cruise than would a heavier but stiff craft, which does 
not strain his body at every moment to keep her 
poised under the alternate strokes of the paddle or 
the sudden pressure of a squall on the sail. 

The lithograph on the opposite page represents, on 
a scale of a quarter of an inch to the foot, fig. 1, a 
section, with masts and sails; fig. 2, a bird's-eye 
view of the deck. The woodcuts at pages 247, 251 
represent, on a scale of an inch to the foot, figs. 3 and 
4, cross sections at the beam and at the stretcher ; 
figs. 9, 10, and 11, the backboard and the apron ; the 
rest of the drawings showing particular portions 
more minutely. The principal dimensions are : — 
Length over all, A S, 14 feet ; from stem to beam, 
B, 7 feet 6 inches; beam, outside (6 inches abaft 



246 APPENDIX — (b). 

midships), 26 inches ; depth from top of deck at C r 
fore end of the well, to upper surface of keel, 11 
inches ; keel, depth outside, 1 inch, with an iron 
band along its whole length, f inch wide ; camber, 
1 inch; depth at gunwale, 8^- inches. The tipper 
streak is of mahogany, and quite vertical at the beam y 
where its depth is 3 inches. The garboard streaks, 
and the next on each side are strong, while the 
next two on each side are light, as it is found that 
they are less exposed than the others, particularly in 
a canoe where all these lower streaks are of oak. 
The stem and stern posts project over deck, the 
canoe, if turned over, will rest on the upper edge of 
the combing, round the well, |- inch deep, projecting 
i inch, of steamed oak, curved at the corners, and 
adding, by its angular position, very much to the 
strength of the deck about the well. The well is 32 
inches from C to D, and 20 inches from E to F, so 
placed that D M is 2 feet, and thus the beam of the 
boat being aft of the midships the weight of the 
luggage G, and of the masts and sails stowed forward, 
brings the boat to nearly an even keel. The additional 
basket of cooking-things at I (fig. 2) brings her a 
little by the stern. For a boat without luggage tke- 
beam should be 1 foot abaft midships to secure an 
even keel. 

The deck is supported on four carlines forward and 
three aft, the latter portion being thus more strength- 
ened, because, in some cases, it is required to support 
the weight of the canoeist sitting on the deck with his 
legs in the water. Each carline has a piece cut out 
of its end (see fig. 6), so that the water inside may 
run along to the beam when the canoe is canted to 
sponge it out. The after edge of the carline at C is 
bevelled off (fig. 5 in section), so as not to catch the 
shins of your legs. All the carlines are narrow and 
deep, to economize strength, and the deck is screwed 



DESCRIPTION OF THE ROB ROY. 247 

FIC.3 




FIC.4 




FIC. 5 



TIG.6 





248 APPENDIX — (B). 

to them with brass screws, so that it might be re- 
moved for internal repairs. A flat piece is inserted 
under the deck at the mast-hole H, which is also 
furnished with a flanged brass ring. The deck is so 
arched as to enable the feet to rest comfortably on 
the broad stretcher J (fig. 4), the centre of it being 
cut down in a curve, in order that the mast and sails, 
rolled together, may rest there when there is no 
luggage, and be kept under the deck, but above any 
wet on the floor.* When there is luggage (as in this 
voyage) I usually put the mast and sails under the 
after deck. The cedar deck round the well at E F is 
firmly secured by knee-pieces, and the boat may thus 
be lifted up by any part, and may be sat upon in any 
position without injury. The luggage for three 
months, weighing 9^ lb., is carried in a black leather- 
cloth bag, 1 foot by 1 foot by 5 inches deep (Gr, figs. 
1 and 2). 

A water-tight compartment may be made by an 
after bulkhead, with a lid to open, so as to allow the 
air to circulate when on shore. 

The floor-boards, about 2 feet long, rest on the 
timbers until, at the part below C (iig. 2), they end 
at P P (fig. 7), in notched grooves, which fit into 
short oak pieces MN,J inch thick, sloping forwards 
on each side of thk keel 0. Their ends rest on the 
garboard streaks, and so lower the heels nearly 1 
inch below the level of the floor-board on the top of 
the timbers. The canoeist sits on the floor-boards, I 
prefer this to any cushion or mat whatever; but if 
a mat or cushion be used, it should be firmly fixed, 
especially in rough water. The canoeist's knees touch 
the combing and the apron boards, while his heels 

* The Jordan canoe had many improvements which are 
explained in the Jordan book. The stretcher is in two se- 
parate pieces, abutting on the carline above, and thus exceed- 
ingly light and strong, and easily moveable. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE ROB ROY. 249 

touch the keel. Thus the dotted lines in fig. 1, from 
the stretcher to the deck, show how the shin-bones 
are supported in comfort, enabling the paddler to sit 
for hours together without straining. But comfort is 
additionally secured by my new kind of backboard, 
shown in figs. 8 and 9, in section and elevation. This 
consists of two strips of oak, 18 inches long, 2 J inches 
wide, and united by a cross piece at Y, and another 
at X, the latter being grooved (fig. 8), so as to rest on 
the top of the combing, and to oscillate with the move- 
ment of the canoeist's back, which is thus supported 
on both sides along the muscles, while the spine is 
untouched between the strips. The dotted line U, 
(fig. 8) is a strong cord passed round all (through a 
hole in the deck or two eyes), and this serves to keep 
the backboard in general upright, while it is free to 
vibrate, or, when on shore, to be closed clown flat on 
deck or to be removed entirely in a moment by un- 
loosing the cord. The use of this backboard is a 
leading feature of the canoe, and adds very much in- 
deed to the canoeist's comfort, and, therefore, to his 
efficiency. The length and width of the oaken strips, 
and the width of the interval between them, ought 
to be carefully adjusted to the size and " build " of 
the canoeist, just as a saddle ought to fit a horse, and 
its rider too. 

The paddle is 7 feet long, flat-blade d, with a 
breadth of 6 inches in each palm, which is copper- 
banded, and made of the best spruce fir, the weight 
being little over 2 lb.* The spoon-shaped blade is 
better for speed, and a longer paddle is suitable for a 

* The paddle of an Esquimaux kyak lately examined, was 
6 feet 11 inches long and 5J inches broad in the palm, and 
the ends had the corners rounded off. The Esquimaux use a 
piece of fish-skin wound spirally along the paddle, in place of 
the rings above mentioned. The paddle of the Norway cruise 
went also on the Jordan and another voyage besides. 



250 APPENDIX — (b). 

racing-boat, but for a travelling canoe, where long 
paddling, occasional sailing, and frequent " shoving," 
require the instrument to combine lightness, straight 
edge, handiness, and strength, it is found that a short 
paddle is best for the varied work of a protracted 
voyage. Leather cups have been usually employed 
on the wrists of the paddle to catch the dripping 
water, but round india-rubber rings look much better 
and answer every purpose, if placed just above the 
points where the paddle dips into the water in an 
ordinary stroke. These rings may be had for two- 
pence, and can be slipped on over the broad blade. 
If necessary, two are used on each side, and they 
bear rough usage well, while if they strike the cedar 
deck, no injury is done to it. 

After numerous experiments, the following very 
simple plan has been devised for a waterproof apron, 
and its application at once removes one of the chief 
objections to canoes in rough water, as heretofore con- 
structed. It is necessary to have a covering for the 
well which shall effectually exclude the water, and yet 
be so attached as not to hamper the canoeist in case of 
an upset, or when he desires to get out of the boat in 
a more legitimate manner. These desiderata are 
completely secured by the new apron, which is not 
permanently attached in any manner to the boat, but 
is formed as follows : — a piece of light wood, of the 
form in fig. 10, 2 feet long and 3 inches deep at the 
deepest part, is placed along each side of the deck 
vertically, so as just to rest against the outside of eaclx 
knee of the canoeist, and then a piece of macintosh 
cloth (drab colour is best) is tightly nailed along and 
over these, so as to form an apron, supported at each 
side on Z (fig. 11), and sloping from the highest part 
forwards down to the deck in front of the combing, 
over which its edge projects 1 inch, and then lies flat.. 
The other or after end is so cut and formed as to fit 



DESCRIPTION OF THE HOB ROY. 
FIC.14 



251 




Fic.ia 



252 APPENDIX— (B). 

the body neatly, and the ends may be tucked in behind, 
or, when the waves are very rough, they should be 
secured outside the backboard by a string with a knot. 
When this apron is so applied, and the knees are in 
position, their pressure keeps the whole apron steady, 
and the splash of small waves is not enough to move 
it. In rough water I place a string across the end 
and round two screw nails on the deck ; or an 
india-rubber cord run through the hemmed end, but 
best of all is a strip of wood bent across the deck 
with its ends under two screws or chocks. 

A button-hole at the highest point of the apron, 
allows it to be supported on the waistcoat. When 
you have to get out on shore, or when sailing, it is 
usually best to stow the apron away, so that the 
legs may be turned into any desired position of 
ease. The apron I used in this tour had been per- 
fectly fitted by myself to me and the boat. Several 
others, a little like it, (very little !) roughly made 
for other canoes, have, as might be expected, failed to 
give satisfaction.* 

One important advantage of a canoe is the capacity 
for sailing without altering the canoeist's seat ; and we 
shall now describe the mast and sails found by ex- 
perience to be most convenient, after three masts had 
been broken and eight sets of sails had more or less 
failed. The mast is If inches thick (tapering), and 
5 feet 6 inches long, of which the part above deck is 
4 feet 9 inches. The lug-sail K (fig. 1), has a yard 
and a boom, each 4 feet 9 inches long, so that when 
furled the end of the boom and mast come together. 
The fore-leach is 2 feet long, and the after-leach 6 feet 

* The " apron " of the Jordan Kob Roy was different in 
construction as explained in " The Rob Roy on the Jordan." 
It has a short six-inch hatch of arched wood, and a light 
cane arched over the knees, which answers perfectly. Five 
years ago I discarded the long wooden hatch. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE ROB ROY. 253 

6 inches, giving an area of about 15 square feet. The 
yard and boom are of bamboo, and the yard passes 
into a broad hem on the sail-head, while the halyard 
is rove aloft through a small boxwood block f inch 
long, and with a brass sheave, and through another (a 
brass blind pulley) well fastened on the side of the 
mast near the deck, so that the sail can be lowered and 
hoisted readily. The lower joint of a fishing-rod, 4 feet 
9 inches long, is a spare boom. The tack end of the 
boom is made fast to the mast by a flat piece of leather, 
lashed to its upper part and to the mast, and so as to 
be free to swing in every direction ; after many other 
plans had failed this was quite successful, and lasted 
through the whole voyage. No hole is made in the 
mast, and no nail or screw driven into it, for these are 
causes of weakness. Two cord loops, about 6 inches 
apart, near the mast-head, support the flagstaff, of 
bamboo-cane 2 feet long, and with a silk flag 7 inches 
by 9 inches. When the mast is not used this flagstaff 
is detached and placed in the mast-hole, which it fits 
by a button 2 inches wide, permanently fixed on the 
staff, the lower end of which rests in the mast-step. 
The halyard and sheet should be of woven cord, which 
does not untwist, and is soft to handle in the wet. 
The sheet when not in hand may be belayed round a 
cleat on deck on either side of the apron, where it is 
highest, and thus these cleats are protected from the 
paddle. 

For the sake of convenience the mast is stepped so 
far forward as to allow the boom to swing past the 
canoeist's'breast when the sail is jibbed or brought over. 
This also allows the luggage-bag to be between the 
stretcher and the mast. Thus the mast-hole H is at 
3 feet 6 inches' distance from the stem. The mast-step 
is a simple wedge-like piece of oak (see E, fig. 14), 
made fast to the keel, and abutting on the garboard 
streak on each side, with a square hole in it for the 



254 APPENDIX — (B). 

foot of the mast. It may be thought that the mast is 
thus stepped too far forward, but the importance of 
having the sail free to swing, without lying against 
the canoeist's body, or getting entangled with his 
paddle, which is used in steering, is so great, that 
some sacrifice must be made to secure this point. 
However, it is found that the boat sails very well on a 
wind with this sail, if the breeze is strong; and in 
light breezes it is only expedient to sail with the wind 
well aft, when the jib can also be used. A canoe must 
have a strong, light, flexible painter, suitable for con- 
stant use, because a great deal has to be done by its 
means in towing on dull water, guiding the boat while 
wading down shallows or beside falls, lowering into 
locks, hauling her over hedges, walls, locks, banks, and 
even houses; and raising or lowering her (with 
luggage in) to and from steamboats. The " Alpine 
Club" •rope, used in the new Eob Roy, was found 
to be hard and " kinky" when wet, and the softer 
rope used in the old Eob Eoy was far better. Another 
kind of brown-tanned rope has been recommended. 
The painter should not be longer than tw T ice the length 
of the boat. Each end is whipped with wax-end, 
which sort of fine twine is also invaluable for all the 
other fastenings, as it never slips. The painter passes 
through a hole in the stem, and another in the stern- 
post, and is drawn tight to lie on deck in the lines AY 
and SY, fig. 2 ; the slack of about four feet is belayed 
round the windward cleat and coiled outside, so that 
it may be seized instantly when you go ashore, or have 
to jump out to save a smash or an overset in a- danger- 
ous place. This mode of fixing and belaying the 
painter I adopted after numerous trials of other plans, 
and it is found to be far the best. 

The jib is a triangle of 3 feet hoist and 3 feet foot, 
the fore-leach fast by a loop, passing under the 
painter and over the stem ; the head is fixed by a loop 



DANISH MISSIONS, 255 

over the mast-head, and under the flagstaff button. 
Thus the jib can be struck while the car; oeist remains 
in the boat, by pushing off these two loops with his 
paddle. To set the jib, it is best to land. This is 
much more generally convenient than to have jib- 
tackle on the mast. (I have now discarded the 
jib entirely.) The sails are of calico, without any 
seam. This lasts quite well enough, dries speedily, 
and sets well, too, provided that care is taken to have 
it cut out with the selvage along the after-leach, and 
not along any of the other sides. Inattention to this 
last direction simply ruins sails; and it cannot be 
too often repeated that the success of the six Eob 
Roy voyages could not be expected if great care had 
not been devoted to all these details. 

A good travelling canoe, costing 15Z., ought to last 
a long time, for it is not racked and pulled in pieces 
at every stroke, as a rowing boat is. AVe have more 
than 200 canoes in the Canoe Club. 



( C.) — Danish Missions. 

The following particulars are taken chiefly from 
" Denmark and her Missions," the book already re- 
ferred to at page 163 : — 

Christianity was introduced into Denmark in the 
ninth century. Harold was the first king who openly 
professed it. Many English names come from Den- 
mark. All our cinque ports have names of Scandi- 
navian origin ; and the name of Havelock is enshrined 
in a strange old story of the twelfth century. The 
incident about Canute and the tide reminds us that, 
there being no ebb and flow in the Baltic, the courtiers 
would naturally have their attention drawn to the 
rising tide in England. 



256 APPENDIX — (c). 

Tn the royal library at Copenhagen I saw the old 
MS. of part of the Old Testament in Danish, written 
in the fourteenth century, on goat skins dyed red. 
In 1515 Peterson, and in 1524, Mikkelsen gave a com- 
plete Danish translation of the whole Bible, which 
appeared two years before Tyndale's English New 
Testament in our own country ; but it was not pub- 
lished as a whole until 1556, under Christian III. 
In the seventeenth century, Frederick IV., a great 
Danish monarch, made fresh efforts to circulate the 
Bible in his territory. He used to read several chap- 
ters every day, and his influence extended for many 
years in this important matter. 

Viborg was the first Protestant town. In 1688 
each church had a " Kirke Gubbe," or " church 
pusher," whose duty it was to wake up sleepers ; while 
an hour-glass placed on the pulpit told the preacher 
he must not speak too long. 

Numerous family ties have united the royal fami- 
lies of England and Denmark from the time w^hen 
Gorme, a Danish king, 1000 years ago, married Thyra, 
daughter, of Ethelred, king of England. 

The Scotchmen Henderson and Patterson, in 1805 
commenced a Bible Society in Denmark. The grand- 
son of George II. of England became its president, 
and used to preach from selected texts. Various 
persons of distinction aided these efforts in more 
modern times ; and now there is a regular agency for 
Bible distribution, and for the circulation of tracts 
among all classes of the people. 

But it is especially in the foreign missionary field 
that the early, active, and successful exertions of the 
Danes deserve to be recorded. They were, in many 
cases, the pioneers of the church, and laboured out a 
way for the Gospel through endless obstacles, and in 
dark and weary days, when man did little to help and 
much to hinder. A few of their splendid achievements 



DANISH MISSIONS. 257 

in this grand battle of the Cross may be briefly 
noticed, even while we pause in our journey to gaze 
back into past centuries. 

With respect, then, first, to the mission work in 
India ; we may pass over the labours of Xavier, as 
their true character has been exposed on examination ; 
and, like other Popish conversions, nearly all the 
alleged instances of it seem to have been merely ex- 
ternal changes of form, and not internal conversion of 
heart; and the Jesuits themselves allow that their 
mission efforts at that time ended in failure. 

Frederick IV. of Denmark aided Ziegenbalch and 
Plutscho to go as missionaries, in 1705, to Tranquebar, 
and their work was helped by the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, which 
had been set on foot four years previously ; and by 
the Christian Knowledge Society, established two 
years before that. The King began a missionary 
college at Copenhagen. War forced the missionaries 
to go to Calcutta, where they soon began to preach, 
and were protected by Lord Clive ; but the East India 
Company resolutely strove to debar all Christians 
from work of this sort ; and it was only by claiming 
protection under the Danish flag that English 
Christians were allowed to proclaim the Gospel in a 
British possession. The first English missionary to 
India was the Eev. A. Clarke, 1789. In 1814 
Tranquebar was sold to England by the Danes, and 
the mission property was then transferred to a Saxon 
society. 

At Tanjore, a native prince introduced the Gospel 
in 1722 ; and then came the great Swartz, who, with 
the aid of Colonel Wood, the conqueror of Hyder Ali, 
erected a church and school at Trichinopoli. He 
obtained great influence over the heathen princes, and 
died after long service, and after he had given much 
money to the missionary cause. One missionary, Dr. 

s 



258 APPENDIX — (c). 

Eottler, laboured for sixty years. William Carey, a 
cobbler, determined to become a missionary to the 
Hindoos; and, being refused a passage in the East 
India Company's ships, he appealed to a Dane, who 
took him out willingly, with his family, to Serampore, 
a Danish colony, w T here the mission was firmly esta- 
blished ; and Carey died in old age, after building a 
college on the Hooghly for 450 missionary students, 
which was endowed and protected by the King of 
Denmark, and was specially provided for when 
Serampore was transferred to England in 1845. 
Marshman, Judson, and Henry Martyn were aided 
in their work from hence ; and an unsuccessful effort 
was made to establish a station in Bhootan, where so 
much trouble has been caused within the last few 
years to British interests. 

Sixty years ago, Taylor was sent by the Church 
Missionary Society to Bombay, under Danish protec- 
tion; the East India Company being still bitterly 
hostile to the truth. 

Turning now to Greenland, we find that in a.d. 
1023 it became tributary to Norway ; but for a long 
time the place was forgotten, until Frederick IV., 
instigated by Hans Egede, established a mission 
station there, after repeated failures, shipwrecks, and 
famines, in 1721 ; and the work being continued by 
Stach and Count Zinzendorf, the Moravians took up 
the mission, and zealously laboured for years with 
most wonderful perseverance, and amid dangers and 
difficulties quite appalling. 

In the West Indies, also, the Danes were moved 
to preach Christ to the wretched slaves in their 
settlements; and Doder began, in 1732, at the 
island of St. Thomas, amid dreadful privations and 
discouragements; but the persecutions by the Go- 
vernor were mitigated through the intervention of 
the good Count Zinzendorf; and, in twenty years, 



CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS IN PRUSSIA. 259 

Christian teachers were even sought for by many of 
the planters. 

F. Martin preached in St. Jan, and others at 
St. Croce ; until from these Danish islands the Gospel 
was first sounded forth to the people of Jamaica, 
Antigua, St. Kitts, Barbadoes, and Tobago. The 
Church of the United Brethren has 314 missionaries 
in foreign lands, with 80,000 people under their charge, 
and 200 schools — their heathen congregations being 
about four times as great as their own number at 
home. 



(D.) — Churches and Schools in Prussia. 

(Notes chiefly extracted from " The Church of Rome 
under Protestant Governments," published 1866.) 

The Calvinists and Lutherans, composing the two 
great divisions of German Protestants, were united 
into one body in 1817, by the exertions of King 
Frederick William, under the name of the Evangelical 
Church, and of this the king is the outward head, as 
•' Summus Episcopus." He governs by means of a 
council appointed by himself, and responsible to him 
alone. This supreme council consists of both clerical 
and lay members ; and under it there is to each 
province a board, also named by the King, and con- 
taining mixed lay and ecclesiastical elements, called a 
" Consistorium, " whose duties are the general over- 
looking and management of the Church affairs of the 
province. The members of these consistoriums, as 
well as of the supreme council, are all salaried by the 
State. 

The control over the clergy in Prussia, similar to 
what would be exercised in our Church by the bishop 



260 APPENDIX — (d). 

of the diocese, is given to superintendents-general, of 
whom there are nine, or one to each province, and 
under each of whom are several superintendents. 
Only one Lutheran bishop still survives in Prussia, 
and it is not intended to appoint a successor to him. 
The power of appointing to benefices is not, however, 
a privilege belonging to the superintendents-general, 
being in some cases vested in the King, in others, in 
private individuals, inheriting the right from their 
ancestors, who became possessed of it from having 
endowed the church, or from some other reason, and 
in more, as generally in towns, in the municipal 
authorities. And also very frequently the choice of 
the minister belongs to the congregation itself. In 
all cases, however, the candidate must be confirmed in 
his appointment by the consistorium of the province. 
This last-named method is generally the case in the 
Ehine provinces and in Westphalia, in the former of 
which, in particular, the Protestants have considerably 
increased in numbers. 

By the census in 1861, there were, out of the 
18,491,220, the total population of Prussia, 11,113,596 
Protestants, 6,824,719 Eoman Catholics, 16,170 so- 
called German Catholics, or members of free congrega- 
tions, 13,708 Mennonites, 1196 professing the Greek 
faith, 253,457 Jews. " Other religions" are put down 
at two; but what creed this couple of independent 
thinkers professed is not stated. The number of 
Protestant churches was, by the same census, 5387 
parish, and 2977 so-called filial, or dependent churches; 
total, 8364. The number of Eoman Catholic was 
4060 parish, and 1439 filial; total, 5499. The 
number of free or German Catholic churches was 
33 ; of Mennonite, 30 ; of Greek, 5 ; and of Jewish 
synagogues there were 1008 — an amount seemingly 
out of all proportion to their numbers. Of clergy- 
men, there were 6329 ordained Protestant, and 189 



CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS IN PRUSSIA. 261 

catechists, total, 6459 ; of Eoman Catholic, 3874 
parish priests, and 2600 curates and chaplains, total, 
6474. This gives a total of 1721 souls to each 
Protestant clergyman's care, and 1054 to each Eoman 
Catholic. 

Government aid, to the amount of 61,354Z., is 
given towards the support of the Protestant church. 
Of this 42,43 lZ. 5s. is expended in; salaries to clergy- 
men, in building and repairing churches, and in 
assisting to increase the stipends of poor clergymen, 
when the income from their parishes is insufficient to 
maintain them. The remainder goes to defray the 
salaries of the superintendents, and the different mem- 
bers of the various boards, together with the costs of 
the establishments connected with the government of 
the church. The sum which each Prussian Protestant 
clergyman, taking all ranks together, and including 
all expenses of church government, costs the State, is 
thus 91. 9s. Of course this is charging to the individual 
salaries of the clergy the cost of the whole Church 
Establishment ; but the majority of the pastors receive 
no aid whatever from the Government — it is only in 
very poor communities that aid is given from the 
public purse. 

The average income of a Protestant pastor is 105Z., 
their salaries being often less in the country and more 
in the towns. The total sum which the spiritual care 
of each Protestant costs the country at large is a 
fraction under 15d. 

The Concordat with the Pope, which forms the 
connection between the Eoman Catholic Church and 
the State in Prussia, was concluded in the year 1821. 
By it, when a see becomes vacant, the dean and 
chapter of the cathedral send in a list of names selected 
by them, out of which the King strikes any which 
may be displeasing to him, and the chapter proceed to 
another election until their choice falls on a candidate 



262 APPENDIX— (d). 

who is approved of by the Sovereign, and who must 
then, if no canonical reason exist to the contrary, be 
confirmed by the Pope. 

The Central Government contributes to the support 
of the Eoman Catholic Church 119,314Z. Of this sum 
53,038Z. are allotted towards maintaining the arch- 
bishoprics and bishoprics, together with the institu- 
tions belonging to them; 58,745Z. to salaries and sup- 
plies in aid of clergy and churches ; 7333Z. for finishing 
the cathedral of Cologne, &c. This gives 18Z. 9s. as 
the sum each Eomish ecclesiastic costs the State. 

The average income of Eoman Catholic priests is 
82Z. 10s., receiving, as a rule, less than that sum in 
the country and more in the towns. About 22 Jd, 
or say 23cL, is the total cost to the country of the 
spiritual care of each Eoman Catholic soul. 

Again, with respect to schools, by the census of 
1861 there were in Prussia 25.156 public elementary 
schools, and 813 private schools, 25,969 in all. The 
public schools were attended by 277,3,413 children of 
both sexes ; the private schools by 48,342, making a 
total of children attending elementary schools of 
2,821,755. The population of Prussia being then 
18,491,220, this would give one elementary school to 
712 inhabitants, and a proportion of about 110 children 
to each elementary school. In addition there were also 
443 so-called little children's schools, attended by 
30,745 children. This, of course, refers exclusively to 
the elementary or lowest schools, and does not include 
the middle, upper, and real, or commercial and 
scientific, which were attended by 274,791 scholars, 
both male and female. In all the schools, both public 
and private, and upper as well as elementary, in 
Prussia, in the year 1861, there were 3,096,546 pupils. 
In the same year there were 36,314 teachers (33,063 
male, and 3251 female) for the public and private 
elementary schools, or 1 teacher to 77 pupils; and 



CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS IN PRUSSIA. 263 

9913 teachers for the middle, upper, and real schools, 
or 1 teacher to 27 scholars ; making a total of 
46,227 teachers to 3,096,546 pupils, or 1 teacher to 
66 pupils, and 1 to 400 of the population. The 
students at the different Universities are excluded 
from the above. 

The whole of these particulars of course relate to 
Prussia alone, and before it was incorporated with 
the empire of Germany. The recent strong measures 
enforced by Prince Bismarck for the exclusion of 
ecclesiastics from places of influence in the National 
Schools are too vast in their probable effects to be 
estimated here, only a few days after they have been 
completed (March, 1672). 



THE END. 



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